Readers' forum: Hand in hand

I am considering renting out my house which I own with a residency mortgage. Its current value is £260 000 and I have a mortgage balance of £173 000.

I want to assign 85% of my share of the beneficial interest to my wife for tax purposes using a deed of assignment. Once the deed of assignment is complete I understand that I can then use a form 17 to share the property income with my wife in the beneficial split agreed in the deed in accordance with HMRC’s guidance : ‘If you jointly own property with your spouse or civil partner and want to change the split of income from it for tax purposes use income tax form 17.’

I checked with the mortgage lender and they do not have a problem with assigning the beneficial ownership to my wife however it might...