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2. I have received a Property Tax Return for a property owned by my parents and myself. My mother passed away on 1 August 2014. How should I complete the Property Tax Return for 2014/15?

The death of your mother gives rise to a change of ownership. 


If your parents and you are the joint owners (the legal term is “joint tenants”) of the property concerned, your mother's share of ownership will be passed to you and your father. In order to distinguish new ownership from old ownership, a new Property Tax file will be opened in the name of you and your father. 


If your parents and you had owned the property as co-owners (the legal term is “tenants-in-common”), your mother's share of ownership will be passed to the beneficiary named in her will or according to the law of intestacy. Again, in order to distinguish the new ownership from the old ownership, a new Property Tax file will be opened in the name of you, your father and the personal representative / executor of the estate of your mother. When the legal title is passed to the beneficiary, another new Property Tax file will be opened in the name of you, your father and that beneficiary. 


Two Property Tax returns will be issued for the year of assessment 2014/15. You should report the total rental income for the period from 1 April 2014 to 1 August 2014 in the tax return for the 1st ownership (before the death of your mother), and the total rental income for the period from 2 August 2014 to 31 March 2015 in the tax return for the 2nd ownership (after the death of your mother).

 

Suppose your father is not one of the owners while you and your mother were the only joint owners of the property concerned, you (as the surviving owner) will become the sole owner of the property on 2 August 2014. As the rental income of any sole-owned property should be reported in a Tax Return – Individuals (B.I.R.60), the rental income from that property for the period from 2 August 2014 to 31 March 2015 should be reported in your own B.I.R.60.