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Personal Savings Allowance - Housewife

Does a housewife who pays no income tax (as no income) have a personal savings allowance?

Or can you save as much as you want, regardless of how much interest you earn and none of it gets taxed? So if you earn £5K in interest in a year and don't have any other income being a housewife do you keep it all? What if you earned £30K in interest?


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Comments

  • £12,570 personal allowance tax free.
    £ 5,000 savings starter rate tax free
    £ 1,000 savings tax free.
    £18,570 tax free total.
  • so for a non taxpayer living off savings, they can earn £18,570 in interest before paying a penny in tax on the interest?
  • Eco_Miser
    Eco_Miser Posts: 4,987 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    A housewife, like (nearly) everyone else, can have income from all sources up to £12570 without paying any tax, then a further £5000 interest at zero percent tax, and only then does the £1000 PSA come into play.
    So she would keep all of the first £18570, and pay 20% tax on the rest until the 40% rate kicks in.

    Eco Miser
    Saving money for well over half a century
  • Eco_Miser said:
    A housewife, like (nearly) everyone else, can have income from all sources up to £12570 without paying any tax, then a further £5000 interest at zero percent tax, and only then does the £1000 PSA come into play.
    So she would keep all of the first £18570, and pay 20% tax on the rest until the 40% rate kicks in.

    But if the 40% rate was applicable then the savings nil rate (aka Personal Savings Allowance) would only be £500 taxed at 0% not £1,000 taxed at 0%.

    As this is a housewife then it's entirely possible she only has a Personal Allowance of £11,310 so all the figures drop by £1,260 meaning tax would be paid above £17,310 not £18,570.
  • People are forgetting the £500 housewife's allowance. This is applied after the personal allowance but before the savings starter allowance. However it does not apply to dividend income.
  • Band7
    Band7 Posts: 2,285 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    People are forgetting the £500 housewife's allowance. This is applied after the personal allowance but before the savings starter allowance. However it does not apply to dividend income.
    Do you have a link please to the gov.uk website with details of the £500 housewife's allowance?
  • MX5huggy
    MX5huggy Posts: 7,170 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Don’t forget she should be putting £2880 into a pension each year grossed up to £3600. 
  • butterflymum
    butterflymum Posts: 1,032 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 5 November 2022 at 12:37AM
    And don't forget, if she earns over £10000 in interest in a tax year, she needs to register for and complete Self Assessment, even if she has no actual tax due because of the various allowances.
    butterfly )i(
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 29,764 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper
    Band7 said:
    People are forgetting the £500 housewife's allowance. This is applied after the personal allowance but before the savings starter allowance. However it does not apply to dividend income.
    Do you have a link please to the gov.uk website with details of the £500 housewife's allowance?
    I have read probably hundreds of posts about savings interest tax, and nobody has ever mentioned 'housewifes tax'. so I suspect a link will not be forthcoming....
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