Paying off someone else's mortgage anonymously

yaya*

I'm just wondering if it's possible to pay off the remainder of someone else's mortgage anonymously and if so, what are the tax implications of this?

This person isn't related to me and the remainder of the mortgage is less than 10k.
Thanks!

Geuze

Read this:

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/cat/index.html

Geuze

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/cat/thresholds.html

16,250 is the CAT limit for people who are not related.

Pawwed Rig

Bear in mind that this is a lifetime limit so you may just be giving them a tax liability elsewhere. I would say the small gift exemption is what you should be looking at here although I can't see a way to make payments to an account without the account details.

Peregrinus

Realistically, even if you had the account details you couldn't just deposit the money and say nothing. They have an obligation to declare the gift for CAT purposes, and you don't want to impose an obligation on them but not have them notice it. Plus, if you did that, when they noticed they'd probably assume there was an error of some kind, and they'd be in a quandary what to do about it. Say nothing and hope the bank didn't notice? Raise it with the bank and ask them to investigate the lodgment? (In which case it would be traced back to you, unless you made the lodgment in cash, which would possibly attract interest from the bank as a strikingly unusual transaction.)

If you really wanted to do this I think the way to go would be to retain a solicitor to act on your behalf, tell the borrower his loan was being paid off by a benefactor who did not wish to be named, make the necessary payment and (probably) advise the borrower what he should do with regardt to, e.g., gift tax. Of course, you'd have to pay the solicitor.

yaya*

Thanks all! Lots to think about here. Might have to be a bit more creative!