There are various legal structures you can adopt when embarking on your first property investment. These include outright ownership, partnership, through a joint venture, limited liability partnership (LLP) or via a more straight-forward limited company.
Personal ownership is by far the simplest form. It’s easier to get financing for this and when it comes to selling, there’s only one tier of capital gains tax to pay. However, all profit is taxed. In a partnerships, LLPs or JV, each individual pays tax independently.
If it’s a company who owns the property then the less expensive corporate tax rates will apply (currently 20 per cent but reducing to 18 per cent from 2020 onwards). Companies which have shared ownership can join via ordinary, preference or partnership shares.
