Can someone else pay into my ISA?

lisyloo

I agree with Cliff.
It someone gives you a gift it's yours.
However if you are worried about the letter of the law then make sure it goes from your account.

JimmyTheWig

As with lisyloo, I agree with Cliff.
No-one (with the arguable exception of a spouse) is allowed to use your ISA allowance for themselves (e.g. if they have already used up all of their own allowance and have more cash to save).

Any way of depositing cash (cheque, direct debit, etc) is allowed, but it has to be the account holder's own money. So if someone owes you £1000, they can pay it directly into your ISA and it becomes your money. Equally if someone wants to give you some money they can do so.
But what would cause suspicions is if, say, someone made a direct transfer into your ISA of £1000 and then 6 months later you made a transfer of £1020 from your ISA to that same person. That would make it look like the investor was using your ISA for themselves and the ISA manager may get suspicious.

HisDoris

I pay £70 a week into my OH's ISA - its with Halifax. I have paid money into his ISA on various occasions in the past few years with no problems at all.

I didnt actually realise that you wern't 'supposed' to! We've always paid money into each others ISA's and its never caused us any problems

lisyloo

Are you married?
If you are married then you can gift whatever you like to each other whenever you like free of tax so there are really no tax issues.

Otherwise you are allowed to "gift" money to each other subject to IHT laws, however it would have to be a genuine gift with no strings attached and not just someone "looking after" the money for you to evade tax as that is called tax evasion and is illegal.
Even genuine gifts could potentially be suject to inheritance tax if one of you died.

dunstonh

My anecdotal view is that S&S ISA managers follow this pretty religiously. Whereas cash ISAs do not. S&S ISA managers will return applications with a cheque drawn on an account not belonging to the person applying for the ISA or where the monthly D/D is not on an account of the person owning the ISA.

The bit that I believe is contradictory is:
Cash subscriptions from third parties can be accepted without question unless the ISA manager holds information that shows that the cash does not belong to the investor.

That is saying that physical cash from third parties is ok unless the ISA manager has evidence to the contrary. Yet payments from direct debits, standing orders etc have to be from the ISA holder. However, it says "They must subscribe with their own cash, and this includes...". If it said they must subscribe with their own money, then that would be clear but to use "cash" usually infers physical money (i.e. notes and coins). Just as it does in the second part of that rule.

I pay £70 a week into my OH's ISA - its with Halifax. I have paid money into his ISA on various occasions in the past few years with no problems at all.

You would have had problems if it was an S&S ISA though.

Saints2011

I was under the understanding that "Do you declare that all subscriptions made and to made to the ISA belong to you"

JimmyTheWig

That's interesting, dunstonh.
I agree that what you are describing is as if they mean money in the first instance and notes and coins in the second instance.
I assumed that they meant the same in each case. Given they clearly state that they mean money in the first instance I figured they meant money in the second instance, too.

All very odd. I mean, other than the fact that it would be impossible to trace, why allow someone to pay in cash but not cheque?

Presumably the same rules don't apply whenever you buy stocks and shares (i.e. outside of an ISA wrapper)?


OP, acedemic interest aside, I suggest you either ask your specific bank or you get your kind and generous friend to pay the money into your current account and you move it to your ISA from there (as per ses6jwg).

dunstonh

Presumably the same rules don't apply whenever you buy stocks and shares (i.e. outside of an ISA wrapper)?

All the providers I have used always ask for a cheque drawn on the account of the investor. That is for money laundering regs though. Maybe that is also the reason for S&S ISAs