Is payment from joint account (my login) to wife's ISA taxed? Maybe income or gift?

redjet

Hi. My wife and I have a joint bank account and manage under my login. We've set up new ISAs with a different bank. If I make a payment from the joint account to my wife's ISA, will it be treated as income to her or a gift in some way, and taxed?

I read there is a limit to gifts you can give before getting taxed, or similarly maybe it counts as individual income to her and gets taxed that way?

Any experience or advice please?

kimwp

The limit on gifts is only applicable when calculating inheritance tax, so if you were to die, then anything over the gift limit would be included as part of your estate calculations for inheritance tax. 
Inheritance tax is only applicable to an estate worth over a certain amount of money, the time elapsed since the date of the gift reduces the proportion of the limit exceedance that can be considered for inheritance tax and probably the fact that you are married has an effect too. There may be other factors.

TadleyBaggie

There is no tax on gifts, it is never treated as earned income.

Organgrinder

There is no tax on gifts to your spouse.

friolento

If the payment comes from a joint account, the ISA provider cannot tell which of the account holders initiated the payment.

amanda1024

Also if it’s a genuinely joint account (in both names), isn’t the money in it joint too?

Organgrinder

TadleyBaggie said:

There is no tax on gifts, it is never treated as earned income.

There is a limit of £3,000 pa apart from gifts to your spouse, civil partner, charities and political parties. You can also gift up to £250 a person.

In practice though I doubt very much that this is enforced!

kimwp

https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts

This states no limit on gifts to spouses with a few caveats.

Zanderman

It's a joint account.

So all transactions out are of jointly-owned money.

There is therefore no gift.

It makes zero difference whose login you use.

400ixl

The only difference is the money goes from being joint int he account to hers in the ISA ads there is no such thing as a joint ISA. There isn't any complication to be worried about.

p00hsticks

Organgrinder said:

TadleyBaggie said:

There is no tax on gifts, it is never treated as earned income.

There is a limit of £3,000 pa apart from gifts to your spouse, civil partner, charities and political parties. You can also gift up to £250 a person.

In practice though I doubt very much that this is enforced!

It's not a 'limit' as such - in this country there is no restriction on you gifting as much as you like to whoever you like. 

As others have pointed out,  the figures you quote relate to whether your estate might be liable to Inheritance tax on them if you die within seven years of making the gift