Married couples Isa allowance

mcrewe

I currently have an amount of cash sitting in a low rate savings acc & have used up my ISA allowance for this year.
My question is simple & straightforward I am allowed legally to top up my wife's ISA allowance from my account or do I need to declare it anywhere ?
My assumption is that as a married couple it shouldn't be an issue but I just wanted to check first.

Thanks

Keep_pedalling

Yes you can, but the money will then be hers. If you are talking cash ISAs, then you would be better putting your money elsewhere, cash ISAs have been a waste of time for years now.

alanq

There's nothing to stop you making a gift to your wife but if the account is in her name the money is hers to do with what she wishes.

enthusiasticsaver

As said above you can of course invest in your wife's isa and the money then becomes hers as you cannot have joint isas.

I would also suggest though that you look elsewhere as cash isas pay very poor rates. We have only used stocks and shares isas for the last 4 years. If you do not want to look at investing rather than saving look at fixed term savings. You both get personal savings allowances now (£1k for a basic rate tax payer) so isas are no longer the only tax free saving vehicle. Fixed term savings, high rate current accounts or regular savers offer the best rates.

Alexland

Many ISA providers will want to see the money coming from an account in her name to satisfy money laundering regs so either transfer it via her bank account or contribute from a joint bank account.

Even then I have problems with ISA providers as my name appears second on our joint bank accounts (and their automated systems only check the first name) so they often ask me to send a scanned front page of our bank statement.