Can I transfer capital gains to my children?

Using as many tax exemptions and reliefs as possible is one of the best ways to reduce your UK tax charge. At the top of the list is using a spouse. There are special provisions that apply to transfers between spouses to ensure that it is easy to crystallise a share of a gain in your spouses hands to use their capital gains tax exemption. If you wanted to use the same approach for your children you would need to be aware that any transfer to your children of an existing asset would crystallise a capital gain with the proceeds deemed to be the market value. What you could do though would be to purchase the asset in the first place in joint names with your children (eg using a bare trust arrangement). On the disposal the capital gain would then be charged on the joint owners which would include your children. They could then offset their capital gains tax annual exemption etc against the gain.