Savings and Tax 5 January at 3:29PM in Savings & investments 6 replies 322 views

Markdavid1962

Firstly I will be getting financial advice but wanted to check the following on here for input

Situation - I am currently a higher rate tax payer who has just stopped work (age 61), my wife does not work and is considered  a basic rate taxpayer.
I have savings which we can live off for a few years and a number of pension pots which I intend to draw a small amount from each year.
As of April 2023 when I become a basic rate taxpayer, my wife will transfer 10% of her tax allowance to me, the intention is to draw £14k from a pension fund each year and pay very little tax as my allowance would be 12570 +1257 = 13827

We will be downsizing the house next year as its to large for us now and after purchasing a smaller house I am considering saving the excess (approx £400k)  as follows, three or four fixed rate accounts in my wife name and a variable account. If the interest generated in these accounts is around £10k pa and my wife has no other income then this should be tax free as she would be under her personal allowance (12570 - 1257)

Does the above make sense and any suggestions

Dazed_and_C0nfused

What makes your wife a basic rate payer?

And you cannot have a Personal Allowance greater than £12,570.

Marriage Allowance is a tax reducer, knocking up to £252 off your income tax liability

TiVo_Lad

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

What makes your wife a basic rate payer?

And you cannot have a Personal Allowance greater than £12,570.

The OP is referring to Marriage Allowance: https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

MX5huggy

Presuming you have savings to live on pay your whole gross salary in to a pension for this tax year. 

When drawing the pension next year remember you get 25% tax free (even if you pay no tax on the rest) so £13827 becomes £17283. 

The wife should be paying £3600 gross into pension every tax year. and I presume you are stuffing ISA’s for both of you each year. 

Albermarle

We will be downsizing the house next year as its to large for us now and after purchasing a smaller house I am considering saving the excess (approx £400k)

Typically downsizing does not result in as much released equity as you might expect.

When you start looking at smaller houses then they may feel too small. More likely you will want a very nice location to retire to after working hard all your life etc, with a sea view maybe. So the price of the purchase property tends to be higher than first envisaged, especially as you can easily afford to pay more for something nice.

jimjames

Markdavid1962 said:

We will be downsizing the house next year as its to large for us now and after purchasing a smaller house I am considering saving the excess (approx £400k)  as follows, three or four fixed rate accounts in my wife name and a variable account. Does the above make sense and any suggestions

Saving some of it may make sense but keeping all of £400k in cash savings for what could be 20 years plus isn't likely to be a great idea as you'll be losing out to inflation. At least some of it being invested should help reduce the impact of inflation over that long term.

Bigwheels1111

£12,570 tax free from earnings or interest.
£ 5,000 starter rate for savings
£ 1,000 tax free interest.
£18,570 of earnings or interest per person before Tax is paid.
If interest is over £10k a tax return will need filling out.
Even though no tax will be paid.