Unmarried with children - no will

zagfles

EachPenny wrote: »

Isn't that the issue here though? If there is no documentation then how can you show that lumps of money being moved around are from income, or transfers between spouses - only needing to do so if you are challenged of course.

As above you can request historic bank statements if you don't have them. From income should be obvious enough - ie income going in and being spent that month. Transfers between spouses will be easy enough as you'll see the amount landing in the spouse's account/joint account.

In our case I know the only significant transfers are between us, so I don't need records (yet) or to check them. But if challenged then HMRC would have done the hard work and got at least some of the records already presumably, otherwise how would they know?

Yorkshireman99

It may be OK between spouses but with the number of unmarried couples it can be a serious problem. I just don't understand why it should be so difficult to keep track of records. A few minutes each month annotating bank and creditr card statements and job done. Lumbering a loved one with a nightmare of dealing with HMR&C because of poor record keeping is just appalling.

securityguy

EachPenny wrote: »

How is it possible to have a joint account with someone, but have no knowledge of their financial affairs... not even their tax situation?

Why would I need to know someone's tax position to have a joint account to pay the bills from?

securityguy

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

A few minutes each month annotating bank and creditr card statements and job done.

Paper bank and credit card statements, grandad?

Yorkshireman99

securityguy wrote: »

Paper bank and credit card statements, grandad?

When people resort to insults I know that they have lost the argument but can't bear to admit it. They are easy to print off each month.

POPPYOSCAR

OP just pop down to the registry offfice.

Answer a few questions,take a couple of documents as required,pay over a few pounds, arrange a date.

Then turn up with two people to witness it and sign.

Job done.

securityguy

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Come off it! They are easy to print off each month.

Which no-one does.

We've got two credit cards and half a dozen current accounts. Seven years' monthly statements would be about a thousand pages. As I use my contactless card to buy coffee and lunch every day, my current account alone would run to three or four pages a month. Chuck in less frequently statemented accounts, ISAs and so on and we would certainly generate over a thousand pages over the course of seven years, documenting tens of thousands of transactions (let's not get into the usual identity-theft advice to shred credit card statements). To what end?

Were we to keep these records you believe to be so essential, we would do so electronically. But why bother? There's no IHT between spouses anyway. Which is how this discussion started: that there isn't such an exemption for unmarried couples. Who don't keep seven years' records either.

Yorkshireman99

Almost complete supposition on your part. You should hope you never investigated by HMR&C. As for the identity theft advice. Did you just invent that? Sorry but your arguments really are lacking substance and credibilty.

EachPenny

securityguy wrote: »

Why would I need to know someone's tax position to have a joint account to pay the bills from?

Maybe you missed the point - you can't have no knowledge 'at all' about someone's financial affairs, but still have a joint account with them. Not possible.

securityguy

EachPenny wrote: »

Maybe you missed the point - you can't have no knowledge 'at all' about someone's financial affairs, but still have a joint account with them. Not possible.

Really? I pay in a grand, they pay in a grand, we pay bills from it. I know they have a grand, which is a pretty minimal version of "knowledge of their financial affairs", and what else?