Saving through my wife

Jingler

My wife works part time and does not earn enough to pay tax. I am a 40% tax payer. Can we open a savings account in her name and I give her the money to save so that we pay less tax on it, is it legal

Flugelhorn

that's what we do.. savings account in non earning DH's name.
Money comes out of our joint account into the savings account.

kidmugsy

Legal? It's routine! You can gift what you like to your wife, and there's no tax on the gift, not even Inheritance Tax. What she does with it is her business, though.

EarthBoy

It's perfectly legal but as kidmugsy says it will be classed as your wife's money so if she runs off with the milkman you will have lost the lot.

jimjames

Jingler wrote: »

My wife works part time and does not earn enough to pay tax. I am a 40% tax payer. Can we open a savings account in her name and I give her the money to save so that we pay less tax on it, is it legal

As above it is all perfectly legal but no longer your money.

Although you have said your wife is a non taxpayer it would work exactly the same if one of you was basic rate and the other paid higher rate tax. Just that in your case she should be able to get interest paid gross rather than having to pay extra if it was in your name.

pawlala

There is no limit to the number of savings accounts you can do this with, but you can only have one wife, sadly.

kidmugsy

pawlala wrote: »

There is no limit to the number of savings accounts you can do this with, but you can only have one wife, sadly.

True, but you can also do it for each child, as long as the interest on the money from a parent doesn't exceed £100 p.a. Then the interest is the wee mite's, of course.

Ken68

My wife ran off with a limbo dancer. How low can you get.

fed_up_and_stressed

pawlala wrote: »

There is no limit to the number of savings accounts you can do this with, but you can only have one wife, sadly.

Unless you move abroad, enter into polygamous marriages then return with the spouses to domicle back in the uk... Not suggesting this would save you personally any money though.

Maybe i live a sheltered life however i do recall being surprised that some benefit rates do have set allowances for polygamous couples. don't know why but I assumed because polygamous marriages can't be formed in the uk that it would not be recognised in the uk for benefit purposes

bigadaj

fed_up_and_stressed wrote: »

Unless you move abroad, enter into polygamous marriages then return with the spouses to domicle back in the uk... Not suggesting this would save you personally any money though.

Maybe i live a sheltered life however i do recall being surprised that some benefit rates do have set allowances for polygamous couples. don't know why but I assumed because polygamous marriages can't be formed in the uk that it would not be recognised in the uk for benefit purposes

In many cases the larger the number of wives then the larger the expense! Mainstream Islam seems to allow for a man to have up to three wives but an important prerequisite is that he must be sufficiently rich. Though these rules were formulated a millennium and a half ago,.

System

Marry sisters! One MIL is enough for anyone.