Can they take my mum's money?

CanNotEvenSpendAPenny

My mother has an ISA in my name so that she can hold more tax-free savings. I am going to declare my debts but I'm worried that they will take my mum's money from the ISA to pay off the creditors. Will this happen?

Thank you for reading. :eek:

sparklymessygirl

Hi there,

As far as I know, (and I'm no expert), ISA's are not meant to be held in nominee for another person - because it is a way of evading tax (although I'm sure thousands of people do it) - so this is a bit tricky! Sorry I can't give you any more advice.

What do you mean by "declare your debts"? Are you going to go bankrupt? Maybe there's something on the bankruptcy thread

Sparkly

Broken_hearted

If the ISA is in your name then if you go bankrupt they will take it.

lynzpower

If you have money in an ISA, dont you think you should pay your creditors with it?

wherediditallgo

You can't have it both ways, I'm afraid. If the money is your mother's, it should be in her name and she should be paying the appropriate tax on it. If it's your money & you're going to file bankruptcy, you will have to declare it when you submit your bankruptcy petition to court. The Official Receiver will take any savings into account - that doesn't mean you'll lose it though, as they may decide it isn't enough to warrant them taking it, but you are required to tell them about any & all accounts that you have, whether they are dormant or not.

As the account's in your name, I don't think you have any choice but to include it and take the risk that the money is taken. You can hardly turn round & say that the money isn't yours it's your mother's, as that would then drop your mother in it for evading tax, & the OR & the Inland Revenue work very closely together. Whatever happens, your mother's already had some benefit from the account that she shouldn't have got, so it's time for you both to be honest. If you or your mother alter the account in any way, the OR could very easily find out and consider that you were trying to hide/dispose of assets, & penalties can be imposed for that. It's really not advisable to try to hide things from the OR - covering one episode of deceit with another isn't going to get you very far.

Stargazer_Lily

lynzpower wrote: »

If you have money in an ISA, dont you think you should pay your creditors with it?

The way I read it it's not the OP's money, it belongs to the mother who has put it in the OP's name to avoid paying tax on it.

Personally I'm not too sympathetic as this sounds like tax evasion which is illegal. It'd be a blow to the OP's mother to lose the money in the ISA to pay for the OP's debts, but I suspect that it'd be an even bigger blow if the Inland Revenue service found out and came after her.

Lil

earwig

if you can prove it is your mum money ie it was tranfered from her acount into yours then you can tranfer it back and the or should be happy with this however if you cant you will have to tell them about it as if you move it the or will know about it and the court form do ask if you have moved any money from your acounts in the last 12 months and if you have what have you done with the money