Gift Allowance

clonkel

Hi, my wife and I have separate bank accounts. If we want to make a gift of the allowable £3000 do we have to take £1500 from each account?
Also, we did not make a gift in the last tax year so are we now able to give £6000 this year?

thank you very much

pphillips

The annual gift allowance is not shared between you and your wife, so you can each give £3000 per tax year (£6000 max). You should pay the gifts out of your own accounts.
However, if you didn't use last year's gift allowance you can each give £6000 (£12,000 max).
There is also a small gift allowance of £250 per person per tax year, this can only be used for those who were not given money from the annual allowance.

clonkel

That is brilliant thank you for your help. No matter how many times I read the information I kept thinking it was £3000 joint. 
Thanks again very helpful

Keep_pedalling

clonkel said:

Hi, my wife and I have separate bank accounts. If we want to make a gift of the allowable £3000 do we have to take £1500 from each account?
Also, we did not make a gift in the last tax year so are we now able to give £6000 this year?

thank you very much

It is not an allowable amount, you can gift as much like, and anything above the allowance stays for 7 years in your estate as far as IHT is concerned.

in_my_wellies

As a follow up, do I need to keep a record of these gifts? I keep bank statements. Who would ask to see them after a death?

Mickey666

It would be the executor of the deceased's estate who is responsible for such things as going through bank statements.  However, I'm not sure if an executor can demand to see anyone's bank statements other than the deceased's ones.

74jax

You can gift however much you like, 3k is not a limit. 

Keep_pedalling

in_my_wellies said:

As a follow up, do I need to keep a record of these gifts? I keep bank statements. Who would ask to see them after a death?

Yes, it will make your executors job a lot easier than trawling through 7 years of bank accounts.

Is your estate likely to to be in IHT territory?