Baby Ace: Paul Daniels" £136k tax bill after caring for his mother

Friday, March 14, 2014

Paul Daniels" £136k tax bill after caring for his mother

By

Ryan Kisiel

He chose to look after his mother during her final years rather than place her in the unfamiliar surroundings of a care home.

Paul Daniels adapted her house, spending thousands of pounds on it so she could retain her independence.

But yesterday the celebrity magician vented his fury at discovering he faces being penalised by the taxman for doing so.

Family: Celebrity magician Paul Daniels, pictured with his parents Nancy and Hugh in 1986, is furious after discovering he will have to pay £136,000 in capital gains tax when he sells his mother

Family: Celebrity magician Paul Daniels, pictured with his parents Nancy and Hugh in 1986, is furious after discovering he will have to pay £136,000 in capital gains tax when he sells his mother’s house, following her death

Tax bill: Mr Daniels and his wife Debbie McGee live in a stunning £2.5million home on the banks of the Thames in Berkshire. But because his mother Nancy

Tax bill: Mr Daniels and his wife Debbie McGee live in a stunning £2.5million home on the banks of the Thames in Berkshire. But because his mother Nancy’s home was registered in his name, he faces the tax bill in the wake of her death. Mr Daniels said he has saved the government money, caring for his mother in her own home rather than move her to a care home

He says he is facing a capital gains tax bill of £136,000 when he sells his late mother’s home.

As it was registered in Daniels’s name and not his mother’s, he is liable to pay the tax on it as a ‘second home’.

But he says that by caring for his mother himself he has saved the government thousands of pounds – and the essential renovations to the house should be tax deductible.

‘They don’t understand the amount I’ve spent and saved the government by providing for her,’ he said.

Shortly after his father Hugh died, Daniels decided to help his mother Nancy to remain in the house she lived in close to him and his wife and stage assistant Debbie McGee.

The entertainer renovated the bungalow by putting in wall banisters and adapting the bathroom.

But following his mother’s death in January at the age of 97, he has calculated that he will now have to pay £136,000 in capital gains tax when he sells the property.

Daniels, 75, who lives in a £2.5million mansion in Berkshire, said yesterday: ‘My parents moved into a lodge house at our previous property and when we decided to move, I bought my mother a small bungalow in the same village as she wanted to stay.

Anger: The celebrity magician said:

Anger: The celebrity magician said: ‘People will say “well you’ve made a lot of money on the house over the years, why not pay the tax bill”, but they don’t understand the amount I’ve spent and saved the government by providing for her’

‘I did it to take away the need for her to worry about all the niggly things that put stress on to pensioners. Without me providing for her, my mother would have had to go into a care home paid for by the state.’

He told how he had to adapt the property to allow his elderly mother to live there as comfortably as possible.

‘I have spent thousands on the property to allow her to remain in the home she knew,’ he said.

‘There were so many bars on the wall to help her cling to while she walked that we joked she could practise her ballet in the house.

‘People will say “well you’ve made a lot of money on the house over the years, why not pay the tax bill”, but they don’t understand the amount I’ve spent and saved the government by providing for her.’

The bungalow in Denham, Buckinghamshire, was bought by Daniels under his real first-name of Newton, for £150,000 in 1997. Property estimates for the area now value it at around £520,000.

So wrong: Paul Daniels (centre) pictured with his parents, added:

So wrong: Paul Daniels (centre) pictured with his parents, added: ‘I will be handing over about £136,000 in tax. That feels SO wrong’

Daniels wrote on his blog: ‘In any business you are allowed to claim expenses against tax. Apparently not in the case of capital gains tax.

‘At a first glance calculation, having saved the government a small fortune by looking after my mother at my own expense, which by the way, I have never regretted or minded in any way, I will be handing over about £136,000 in tax. That feels SO wrong.’

The Liberal Democrats wanted to raise capital gains tax from 18 per cent to 40 or 50 per cent to match income rates in 2010. But when faced with a revolt from his backbenchers, Prime Minister David Cameron watered down the proposals to 28 per cent for those earning above the basic income rate.

The Government currently has no plans to change the rules of capital gains tax.

During the recent floods Daniels told how he was able to keep his home on the banks of the Thames dry, despite the waters coming close to his property. The house was damaged both in 2003 and 2012, but thanks to a series of flood pumps and defences it was protected from the deluge this time.