Wife non tax payer, joint saving = no tax???

sukh38

Hi,

My wife is a non tax payer if we open a savings account in joint name will we avoid tax or will it have to be in her sole name?

CLAPTON

a joint account between married people the interest is assumed 50-50
so half will be tax free and half you pay tax; so your wife would need to reclaim her share of the tax.

xylophone

Your wife could complete an R85 http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/r85.pdf- tick for joint account.

zygurat789

You could open an account in your wife's name and with withdrawls by either of two on a single signature so it is an account in her name but is effectively a joint account. This would result in tax being saved.

nomunnofun

zygurat789 wrote: »

You could open an account in your wife's name and with withdrawls by either of two on a single signature so it is an account in her name but is effectively a joint account. This would result in tax being saved.

That brings me back to the very awkward interviews with clients - errr, are you and your spouse likely to remain married for the foreseeable future? Never got the hang of proposing that question.

zygurat789

nomunnofun wrote: »

That brings me back to the very awkward interviews with clients - errr, are you and your spouse likely to remain married for the foreseeable future? Never got the hang of proposing that question.

In a divorce/separation ALL assets are available for division no matter whose name they are in.
Why are you asking that question?

missile

A very sensible question.

A work colleague, put all his assets into his wife's name to save tax. Whilst he was working overseas, she sold off "his" assets and drained their bank accounts. After a long and messy divorce he got only a fraction of his assets back.

nomunnofun

zygurat789 wrote: »

In a divorce/separation ALL assets are available for division no matter whose name they are in.
Why are you asking that question?

Think you are reading to much into my post. During my many years as a tax adviser one would always advise as to the best division of assets. It is not always easy to suggest to a man that he could save tax by transferring his savings to his wife's name to save tax, for example, particularly if his wife was present. That is all that I meant.

I have some considerable experience in ancillary relief cases. Now if you truly believe that, in a divorce settlement, a wife, possibly with custody of the children, is going to be asked to empty her savings accounts of monies given to her by her husband, that is somewhat naive. Indeed, the mere suggestion could adversely impact upon the decision of the judge when dividing the marital assets.

Gambler

I was wondering the same about the santander 123 account offering 3% interest. My partner is a non tax payer where as I pay 40%. How would it work?

nomunnofun

Either your wife receives her half of the interest gross or you remove your name from the account and she receives all the interest gross. Both are achieved by sending completed form R85 to Santander

.https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/r85.pdf

dzug1

zygurat789 wrote: »

You could open an account in your wife's name and with withdrawls by either of two on a single signature so it is an account in her name but is effectively a joint account. This would result in tax being saved.

I hope that's shorthand for you could persuade your wife to open an account and make you a signatory on it

You can't open an account in someone else's name