I am a self employed carer, my only client is a friend of mine who I became close with after our son’s went to school together and where close friends.
Since covid me friend who I do care for has got significantly worse with dementia and has also lost her husband to cancer. In turn my friends son has lost his dad and struggling to support his mum.
He has had to self fund the care for his mum for a long time, and I am aware of approx. how much this will have cos him, as well as how much he has struggled and put his life on hold to support his mum, my friend.
He now get NHS funding to help support his mum because her condition is so serious and difficult.
I work for him / his mum, after he insisted that I must be paid the same way the other cares are so it is fair.
I do not know what his financial position. His car is completely broken and he is looking for a new one.
Am I able to give him a gift of £20,000+ so he can go and buy a new car, as I never really wanted to be paid for looking after his mum, my friend.
I have paid all my taxes on the money I have earnt from looking after my friend, this would be from my own personal savings only.
I want to give this as a gift, for everything he has done for his mum as well has having me as part of the care staff, so I can look after my friend, as well as being very flexible with time off so I can get to see my own children abroad much more than I have previously had without the money I have earned.
this would be something I know his mum would be proud of, what he has and is doing, and would want to do this herself for him if she was still able to.
So
I am unsure how this would look / be perceived, as he pays my invoices for care, form his a bank account in his name ( though he said this is NHS funded money now), his mum is my care client(and friend). And I want to gift him a significant amount of money £20,000 - £25000 ( assuming he accepts it) from my personal savings
non of this gift money is a business expenses or pre taxed money, it is all personal saving which has been taxed already.
Am I allowed to do this? Does he or I have to declare this to HMRC? Is there a limit on how much I can gift? Will this cause some sort of issues at some point because he pays me, for the work I do for his mum, as he does for all the care team, I have completed self assessment and paid taxes as I should, but I want to provide him with a gift of money. Which i understand probably isnt very usual, but is an honest interaction. I don’t want it to look like some sort of dodgy scheme.
I think officially his mum get money from NHS for her care but he is her LPA so he deals with all the money on her behalf as she is no longer able to. So isnt actually paying me, it’s the NHS, but he facilitates it and it comes from his account. I think its call continuing health care he gets. Over the past 2 years I have earnt significantly more than the amount I want to give him.
Would I need to write a letter confirming this is a gift with no expectations of getting this back or expectations to get anything in return.
PS, I plan to continue working for him to look after his mum after this as well. If this is relevant at all.
thanks
