Using all wife's tax allowance

RKansot

Is there any reason why my pensions income cannot be paid directly to my wife's account so that we can use her personal tax allowance and 10% band rather than me pay 22% ?

dzug

RKansot wrote: »

Is there any reason why my pensions income cannot be paid directly to my wife's account so that we can use her personal tax allowance and 10% band rather than me pay 22% ?

It's your income, not hers, so it will be taxed at your rate whatever account it's paid into.

RKansot

Thanks but is there any way that pension benfits can be assigned direct to my wife in the same way that we might put all of a joint savings account in her name ?

ariba10

There is nothing to stop you putting as much of your savings as you wish in her name.

jem16

RKansot wrote: »

Thanks but is there any way that pension benfits can be assigned direct to my wife in the same way that we might put all of a joint savings account in her name ?

It's your pension and can only be classed as your income.

RKansot

Thanks Ariba10 - I know that it is possible to put savings in my wife's name to reduce tax but my question was whether it is possible to formally make my wife the sole beneficiary of my pension so that it is pais directly to her and in effect becomes her pension?

jem16

A pension cannot be transferred to another person. It's yours and yours alone.

seven-day-weekend

AFAIK what you propose is not possible. It will always be classed as your pension and taxed accordingly.

At one time it was possible for the tax-paying spouse to be able to use the unused tax allowance of the non-taxpaying one as well as their own and thereby reduce their own tax liability, but this is no longer possible.

I wish it still was, we would do the same as I am a non-taxpayer!

Cook_County

Sorry - the only legal way I know of doing this is after your death when she would get and pay tax on a widow' pension - but that is way way beyond sensible tax planning!

Mikeyorks

You beat me to it. Not sure how many 'no' responses are required ..... but regret death is the only way to achieve the OP objective. It's taxed at source whilst you're alive. You can then give the net effect to anyone you like .... but you can't enlist spouses / children etc in order to keep it gross.

Nice idea though!

jimmo

A bit tongue-in-cheek, this one, but you could try getting divorced and obtaining a Pension Sharing Order.
This link is to a manual that I was not aware of in my working days so don‘t ask me to explain.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/psimanual/part03/psi3.5.4.htm