APS - Inheritance ISA

Aristarcus

Good afternoon,

I just spoke to HMRC who advised you do not need to have been living together at the time of your spouses death to be able to apply for an additional permitted subscription, though most of the documentation I see implies that you do.

My husband was a non-functioning alcoholic and I started to rent a place with the hopes his survival instinct would kick in and it would 'scare him straight' as I was no longer there as much / full time to act as his carer and cook, clean, drive him to appointments etc.

Do you know if there is anyone who can advise on extenuating circumstances? All the people I spoke to at HMRC hadn't heard of APS, the last person I spoke to was reading from guidelines he had pulled up on their system. Or is it pretty much cut and dried?

Thanks for your thoughts.

badger09

Aristarcus wrote: »

Good afternoon,

I just spoke to HMRC who advised you do not need to have been living together at the time of your spouses death to be able to apply for an additional permitted subscription, though most of the documentation I see implies that you do.

My husband was a non-functioning alcoholic and I started to rent a place with the hopes his survival instinct would kick in and it would 'scare him straight' as I was no longer there as much / full time to act as his carer and cook, clean, drive him to appointments etc.

Do you know if there is anyone who can advise on extenuating circumstances? All the people I spoke to at HMRC hadn't heard of APS, the last person I spoke to was reading from guidelines he had pulled up on their system. Or is it pretty much cut and dried?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm assuming your husband has died?

Dumbed down version here:
https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/inheriting-an-isa-from-your-spouse-civil-partner

However, Guidance for ISA managers here

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-additional-permitted-subscriptions-into-an-isa

says that to qualify for APS, deceased & surviving spouse/partner must have been living together at date of death

eskbanker

badger09 wrote: »

I'm assuming your husband has died?

Dumbed down version here:
https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/inheriting-an-isa-from-your-spouse-civil-partner

However, Guidance for ISA managers here

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-additional-permitted-subscriptions-into-an-isa

says that to qualify for APS, deceased & surviving spouse/partner must have been living together at date of death

....but that latter document is also to a certain extent dumbed down (compared with previous more legalistic text governing such matters), and later on is more specific:

When making an additional permitted subscription the surviving spouse or civil partner must declare:

1. They’re the surviving spouse or civil partner of the deceased.
2. They were living with the deceased within the meaning of section 1011 of the Income Tax Act 2007 at the date of the deceased’s death.
   [...]

which in turn specifies:

Individuals who are married to, or are civil partners of, each other are treated for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts as living together unless—
(a) they are separated under an order of a court of competent jurisdiction,
(b) they are separated by deed of separation, or
(c) they are in fact separated in circumstances in which the separation is likely to be permanent.

so there does seem to be some scope for debate.

badger09

eskbanker wrote: »

....but that latter document is also to a certain extent dumbed down (compared with previous more legalistic text governing such matters), and later on is more specific:which in turn specifies:so there does seem to be some scope for debate.

OP said she was renting elsewhere. I guess;) if this had only been for a short time, she could argue the separation was not intended to be permanent.

Probably worth simply going through the ISA provider's APS process. I've no idea what info is required but if OP is registered as being resident at a different address, she would need some plausible explanation for that:cool: