Tax if you transfer a website into a childs name

Anyone considering transferring a website into a child's name should be aware of the tax consequences. Firstly it will be a disposal for capital gains tax purposes. Therefore you should obtain some value of the website name. Of course if there is no trade undertaken in the website and it was purchased for nominal value the value may be effectively nil. If it had a significant value (eg it was a name of special interest and could demand a high price) you'd need to consider the CGT liability on the transfer. After 6 April 2008 the rate of CGT on any gain would be 18%, after you'd offset the annual CGT exemption. If the transfer was to your own child you'd need to watch out for the settlement provisions. Under normal circumstances a child would be taxed separately. Therefore they would have their own personal allowance etc to offset against any income that may be generated from the website name. If though they're your minor child, and income (subject to some conditions) would be taxed on you. For CGT purposes there would be no such attribution of gains to you if a child owned directly (although there would be if you transferred to a trust for their benefit).