my income and wife

wolfie665

Hello,

I work as fully employed. My wife is not working and we does not have any other income than my salary.

Is there any way I can pay less tax?

Does the tax system in the UK recognize my wife as dependant for income tax purposes?

thank you

cheers
Val

CLAPTON

wolfie665 wrote: »

Hello,

I work as fully employed. My wife is not working and we does not have any other income than my salary.

Is there any way I can pay less tax?

Does the tax system in the UK recognize my wife as dependant for income tax purposes?

thank you

cheers
Val

you can put any savings/S&S in her name so the interest is tax free

after april, there is a facility to transfer some of her tax allowance to you: assuming you are a basic rate tax payers then that would be worth 200 per annum

Savvy_Sue

wolfie665 wrote: »

Is there any way I can pay less tax?

ISAs and a pension are two which spring to mind, but they won't increase your income in the way you might be hoping for.

wolfie665 wrote: »

Does the tax system in the UK recognize my wife as dependant for income tax purposes?

There's a few of us around who remember the Dark Ages when wives had to declare all sources of income to their husband, who then had the responsibility of completing a tax return, but these days income tax is (mostly) an individual responsibility. Clapton's suggestion of putting savings into your wife's name is a worthwhile one, although bear in mind that the money is then seen as hers, so trust is essential.

zygurat789

you can put any savings/S&S in her name so the interest is tax free

after april, there is a facility to transfer some of her tax allowance to you: assuming you are a basic rate tax payers then that would be worth 200 per annum[/QUOTE]

If that S & S is stocks and shares then any dividend income will have an attached tax credit but this is not repayable.

zygurat789

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

ISAs and a pension are two which spring to mind, but they won't increase your income in the way you might be hoping for.

There's a few of us around who remember the Dark Ages when wives had to declare all sources of income to their husband, who then had the responsibility of completing a tax return, but these days income tax is (mostly) an individual responsibility. Clapton's suggestion of putting savings into your wife's name is a worthwhile one, although bear in mind that the money is then seen as hers, so trust is essential.

Ah but in those days the wife was two separate tax people in the year of marriage which gave rise to a nice little tax avoidance scheme which paid for our first washing m/c.

Savvy_Sue

Except that in my case, DH was unemployed when we married, and receiving a giro for 50p per fortnight send first class. And yet I was his dependent for the purposes of dental treatment!

Just_landed

read below

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2960980/PM-hails-tax-break-married-couples-Long-awaited-help-arrives-stay-home-mothers.html

Then check this

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance


Just maybe useful to you.

Corncrake2

zygurat789 wrote: »

Ah but in those days the wife

Some of us are old enough to remember that it was not, just, the wife, it was the spouse who could transfer the whole of his maried man's allowance and his personal allowance to his wife to offset against her earned income.

And who was it that discontinued this ? a certain Conservative by the name of Mrs Thatcher, who was I think an associate of the present PM who is making so much noise about this partial new allowance.

Ah nostalgia and amnesia.

zygurat789

Corncrake2 wrote: »

Some of us are old enough to remember that it was not, just, the wife, it was the spouse who could transfer the whole of his maried man's allowance and his personal allowance to his wife to offset against her earned income.

And who was it that discontinued this ? a certain Conservative by the name of Mrs Thatcher, who was I think an associate of the present PM who is making so much noise about this partial new allowance.

Ah nostalgia and amnesia.

Ah, but, what I was referring to had to be the wife.
In those days the wife had fewer rights in tax law than a jihadi bride today

Corncrake2

zygurat789 wrote: »

Ah, but, what I was referring to had to be the wife.
In those days the wife had fewer rights in tax law than a jihadi bride today

Quite so, which is why I only quoted you up to the "wife" and not the rest,
and thus I used your post as a convenient vehicle to reminisce about other aspects of those mysterious creatures

Sorry for the trivia, I'll go back to sleep now

margaretclare

There's a few of us around who remember the Dark Ages when wives had to declare all sources of income to their husband, who then had the responsibility of completing a tax return, but these days income tax is (mostly) an individual responsibility.

Yes, here's another one who remembers those 'Dark Ages'. I'm one of the people who played a tiny part in getting this changed. Individual personal taxation came in the Budget of 1990. I recall speaking to the then Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, on BBC 'Election Call' and he agreed with me. Not sure it's fair to blame the changes on Baroness Thatcher, I think she'd been replaced by then.

I don't think comparison with jihadi brides is useful. From what I've read they have no rights whatever, having to stay indoors all the time except when allowed out, heavily covered in black from top to toe, with a male guardian. No matter how 'dark' our dark ages were, they were never as bad as that.