IHT Gift and joint account

Dilbert_Investor

Just a quick one I hope someone can help me with.

My mum regularly gave me and my brother the £1,500 annual gift allowance limit per year, whilst my dad often gave more than this because he said he had a larger income than her - and usually moved him money into the account ahead of the payments.   But it came from their joint account as a single payment.  

Would it be accepted by the tax people that it wasn’t a 50/50 split  - particularly that he often funded the account ahead of the payment from his own means.

sammyjammy

Have your Mum and Dad now passed away? Was their estate subject to inheritance tax?  AFAIK the limit is £3k per year for each individual, I don't think it matters what account it came from.  Not sure what you mean by moved money into the account ahead of payments.  Suspect you are overthinking this.

Keep_pedalling

If the gifts from each parent were paid as a single payment from a joint account then it would be hard to argue that it was not a joint gift. If each was paid separately from the same account not so much of a problem. 

Dilbert_Investor

Thanks.  Apologies for the delay.  I’ve looked again at the bank statements and they are separate payments at different times but from same joint account.

There are no notes on the statement to evidence which parent gave the gift.

However, usually Dad would transfer money from his saving account/share account into the joint account immediately prior to his gift.

Keep_pedalling

In which case I think you can safely appoint those gifts to him alone. In the unlikely event that HMRC challenge that you have proof the the money originated from his sole account.