'Income' for wife

macthemaths

My wife does not work (and we would like, therefore, to take advantage of her tax allowance).

If I open a 1-2-3 account in her name solely, is it acceptable to give my income figure as hers (i.e. it is our family income) or should I state the proportion of my income that is used to 'run the house'. Are both slightly misleading? The second certainly seems odd to me, since we have run joint finances since we were married and I couldn't imagine suggesting that she was given 'housekeeping', even though we run to a budget.

With thanks for your answers to what might seem like a silly question.

anselld

You can make use of 1060 of her allowance through the Marriage Allowance, depending on your own income ...
https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance-guide/overview

You can place any savings and investments in her sole name.

That is about it. You can't just arbitrarily assign her some of your income if that is what you were suggesting.

macthemaths

anselld,

Thank you for your reply. The 1060 had passed me by, but we don't appear to be eligible because my salary exceeds the upper limit.

My query is more simple than that, I think (but I probably haven't made myself very clear).

As part of the application process for the 1-2-3 (and most current accounts, I suppose) you are asked for your annual income. My wife has no income of her own other than our joint income generated by my employment. Would it be wrong for me to give this 'family' income when applying for a current account in her sole name?

Thanks again.

HappyMJ

macthemaths wrote: »

My wife does not work (and we would like, therefore, to take advantage of her tax allowance).

If I open a 1-2-3 account in her name solely, is it acceptable to give my income figure as hers (i.e. it is our family income) or should I state the proportion of my income that is used to 'run the house'. Are both slightly misleading? The second certainly seems odd to me, since we have run joint finances since we were married and I couldn't imagine suggesting that she was given 'housekeeping', even though we run to a budget.

With thanks for your answers to what might seem like a silly question.

You can not apply to open a Santander 1-2-3 account in someone else's name.

She has to fill out the application herself.

macthemaths wrote: »

anselld,

Thank you for your reply. The 1060 had passed me by, but we don't appear to be eligible because my salary exceeds the upper limit.

My query is more simple than that, I think (but I probably haven't made myself very clear).

As part of the application process for the 1-2-3 (and most current accounts, I suppose) you are asked for your annual income. My wife has no income of her own other than our joint income generated by my employment. Would it be wrong for me to give this 'family' income when applying for a current account in her sole name?

Thanks again.

You can not give any answer to the question as you are not the one applying for the account.

She has to answer the question as asked. If the question asks for household income then she can safely enter your salary.

Why not open a joint 1-2-3 account? If this is your joint money going into the account then you can access your joint money at any time.

If she opens a personal 1-2-3 account don't operate it as your own. It's her account. She has to be the one on the keyboard logging in and carrying out the transactions.

System

A couple of points that I can think of

You may need to provide proof of income
You may need to ensure that the relevant amount is put into the account each week/month
How long would it take for Santander to pick up on the fact that the 'pay' payments are coming from a different personal account and not being paid by a company?

Setting up her own account will give her no tax advantage whatsoever as any moneys paid in by you will already be tax-paid

YorkshireBoy

There are two ways of approaching this...without committing application fraud!...

1. Open a joint account, then change it to a sole account in her name only after a short while.

2. She applies in her sole name, stating her occupation truthfully as 'home maker' and giving a figure of, say, £800 per month in the 'other income' field. The form doesn't ask for the source of this income (but does say they may request proof). She'd then say she receives this income by 'standing order' by ticking the appropriate box.

Doing either of the above will ensure she does not receive a category 3 or 4 CIFAS marker for 'material falsehood: application denied' or 'material falsehood: application granted'.

Doing it your originally proposed way doesn't offer such a guarantee!

macthemaths

Thanks both for your replies. I think you have helped me to clarify my thinking on this.

HappyMJ,
I'm sure that she would be able to open and operate the account for herself - I use the term me/I, since I am the one doing the thinking but thanks for making the account operating rules clear since, in practice, it would probably have been me logging in to manage her account. The application asks only for annual income and regular outgoings.

!!!!!! - Do the banks really care if the monthly payment comes from a company? What about the people on the boards that 'pay' into their multiple current accounts from other current accounts to maxmize their savings rates?

I think it would give 'us' a tax advantage since saving £20k in our joint 1-2-3 will cause me to pay higher rate tax on half of the interest whereas she will pay none on her sole account (since she has no other income).

I suppose the main thrust of my question is whether a husband's take home pay is a joint or sole 'income'.

macthemaths

Thanks Yorkshire Boy - this is useful too.

YorkshireBoy

macthemaths wrote: »

I suppose the main thrust of my question is whether a husband's take home pay is a joint or sole 'income'.

It's quite clearly a sole income!

macthemaths

Thanks YorkshireBoy- that's very clear. I know it sounded like a daft question but I just wanted to get my head around it all since we have spent all of our married life thinking of my sole income as a joint income (via our joint account).

HappyMJ

macthemaths wrote: »

Thanks both for your replies. I think you have helped me to clarify my thinking on this.

HappyMJ,
I'm sure that she would be able to open and operate the account for herself - I use the term me/I, since I am the one doing the thinking but thanks for making the account operating rules clear since, in practice, it would probably have been me logging in to manage her account. The application asks only for annual income and regular outgoings.

!!!!!! - Do the banks really care if the monthly payment comes from a company? What about the people on the boards that 'pay' into their multiple current accounts from other current accounts to maxmize their savings rates?

I think it would give 'us' a tax advantage since saving £20k in our joint 1-2-3 will cause me to pay higher rate tax on half of the interest whereas she will pay none on her sole account (since she has no other income).

I suppose the main thrust of my question is whether a husband's take home pay is a joint or sole 'income'.

Be careful operating the account yourself "in practice". If unfortunately she were to die DO NOT use the account. Leave whatever balance is in the account where it is and don't log in. A dead person obviously can't log in and if you log in and transfer it all to yourself that will be deemed fraud. Technically she should not share her personal log on details, passwords or PIN's with you...just saying be careful.

It's both joint household income and your personal income.

What does it matter anyway? She's not applying for an overdraft so can enter her personal income as zero.