Can my wife pay directly into my ISA?

enigmam

Hello,

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but if I set up an ISA in my name, can BOTH my wife and I make direct payments into it. I understand it can't be a jointly named account, and we are both happy with that, but we would both like to make ad-hoc direct payments using internet banking.

Does anyone know if this is not allowed? I'm having trouble finding out using google, most places just talk about no joint names on the account.

Many thanks in advance

Lokolo

No.

Your wife can give you the money and you can then put it in the ISA. But she can't put it in herself.

Has to to go Your name --> Your ISA.

arealhighlander

Lokolo, not quite.

Enigmam, your wife CAN pay money into your ISA if she wants; ANYONE can pay the money into your account, but as far as the bank and the Taxman will be concerned, the money is counted as have coming from YOU and counting towards YOUR ISA allowance.

Whether she pays it via BACS, you pay it in via BACS, whether either of you walk into the bank and pay it in with cash, as soon as its paid in it belongs to you and is treated as having come from you.

Why not have one cash ISA each and each pay into their own ad hoc?

dunstonh

Lokolo is correct. It is in HMRC requirement that the funds are seen to be coming from you. So, you cannot pay a cheque drawn on your wife's account into your ISA.

She can however write you a cheque and you can write your own cheque into your ISA.

I'm sure that with bacs and cash its easy to get round that but technically the money has to come from an account in your name.

FluffyFiFi

Anyone can pay money into your ISA - they can pay by cheque if it is made out in your name, or they can send a payment via on-line banking. The only requirement for an ISA is that only £3600 this tax year can be deposited. It doesn't matter who pays the money in. If you are going to be putting more than this in it would be worthwhile having an ISA each. Anyone can go into the branch and pay cash in too, as long as they quote the account number.

enigmam

Thanks for the replies, it seems by a 2-1 vote that I will have to transfer the money to the ISA via my current account first, which isn't a problem really.

The reason for not having two ISA's is that strange things happen with her bank balance (it falls very quickly) if she accidently views Miss selfridges/Top Shop/random clothes shop online, and we think an ISA might also be affected

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated


It's now 2-2. Maybe I'll see what happens, I tried to ring the bank and they say "Errrr...."

Lokolo

Well basically I thought of this for 2 reasons:

Its called an individual savings account, its using your national insruance number/code, all for tax reasons.

Barclays, when I opened an ISA, specfied if I paying in my cheque I would need the cheque to be from me, to me. Not anyone else. And I'm sure they had a reason to say that!

bryanb

If it's a problem I would allow her to pay into mine.I would not mention it to anyone.

Hemel_2

anyone can pay into the account, areahighlander is right...

i've paid cheques into my ISA from other people (gifts) and never had this refused. It's not in the T&C either.

I can understand that the initial opening balance could be in a cheque in yu own name for AML reasons.

Otherwise, pay the cheque in to your joint (assuming joint account) and transfer online... but I doubt you'll be faced with this issue.

arealhighlander

I've done a search around.

I cannot find any mention to say you cannot in either the HMRC ISA guideline leaflet http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/isa-factsheet.htm

Nor in the guidance for ISA Managers http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/isa-guidance-notes-2008.pdf

The only thing I can find regarding this is that in your ISA application, you declare "All subscriptions made, and to be made, belong to me"

I dont read that as all payments in must only be from an account in your name. Just that the subscription you are making in opening teh ISA is yours and the money being paid in is yours.

Ah, further searching, on Page 46 (out of 183!) in the above Guidance notes for ISA Managers, I found:-

5.29 Once an ISA has been opened on behalf of an investor (as outlined in paragraphs 5.24 to 5.28), there are no particular ISA rules about who can operate that (opened) account on behalf of the investor. If the manager receives a mandate from the investor they should treat it in the same way as they would if it related to a non-ISA account.

So that would suggest once you have opened the ISA and conformed to all the rules in opening it, it can then be operated/payed into the same as any other bank account.

Yay, the Internet!

Hemel_2

well done for finding out... the internet - what would we do without it!