Sharing tax free allowance

Frugal_Bear_3

I hope this is a quick query, I have been led to believe that if I receive an income of less than my tax free allowance that the remainder can be effectively given to my partner, is this correct and is it only for married couples please?

If this is true, how would one set this arrangement up? Particularly as I do not comprehend how my partners employer would know how much of my allowance is remaining.

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

jennifernil

No, that is not correct. You can only use your personal allowance yourself.

Savvy_Sue

It used to be possible, when there was a married man's tax allowance and it was the man who did the tax returns and included his wife's income.

However this is a very long time ago, and as jennifer says you can't do it any more!

antonic

This ceased in 1990 when independent taxation was brought in.

Frugal_Bear wrote: »

I hope this is a quick query, I have been led to believe that if I receive an income of less than my tax free allowance that the remainder can be effectively given to my partner, is this correct and is it only for married couples please?

If this is true, how would one set this arrangement up? Particularly as I do not comprehend how my partners employer would know how much of my allowance is remaining.

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

barak

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

It used to be possible, when there was a married man's tax allowance and it was the man who did the tax returns and included his wife's income.

However this is a very long time ago, and as jennifer says you can't do it any more!

.....Unless one of a married couple or civil partnership was born before 6th April 1935 when there are certain possibilities.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/married-allow.htm

Frugal_Bear_3

I must be older than I realised! Thanks so much for clearing that up.

Savvy_Sue

You can still put savings into the name of a non-taxpayer so that they can get interest gross. However, that does make them 'their' savings, if anything happens to you. If you make it a joint account, I think some banks may pay half the interest gross, but if not then the non-taxpayer can do a tax return and get a refund of tax paid on half the interest.

With interest rates the way they are, you'd need a serious amount of money to make this worthwhile, IMO, and an ISA might be a better way to achieve the same result!