Q. Two brothers jointly own a UK residential property held as an investment. One of them plans to purchase the other’s share from him and is considering whether or not to buy this in joint names with his spouse, depending on the possible SDLT outcome in either case.

The purchasing brother is a UK resident, but his spouse is temporarily non-UK resident due to currently working full-time overseas. Despite this, they are still very much living together, and the non-resident spouse returns regularly to the family home during holidays, etc.