UK Expat - Personal Savings Allowance

Hello, Me and my married partner are UK domiciled Non-resident British expats who have been living in the UAE for 10+ years. We both have separate UK income from property in the UK. My partners UK income is less than £10,000 per year. My UK income is over the £17,570 personal savings allowance. Firstly, is it possible for us to transfer money from the UAE into a joint fixed rate savings account in the UK? Also, as my partner should have a personal savings allowance of £5,000, is it possible to combine our Personal savings allowances for our joint savings account? This should result in a combined personal allowance of £6,000 before any tax is applied to interest earnt on UK savings. Hopefully this makes sense. Kind Regards

Can anybody help with the above questions. Thanks

Hi,

Yes you can transfer funds if your bank will allow it. For the joint accoint, any interest would then be split 50/50 so even if your share of the interest is over £1000, you will still be liable to pay tax on the difference. The combining of the savings rates us not applicable.

Thank you.

Thanks for the reply. I think I understand what you are saying. For example: If the combined interest we earnt in year 1 was £3,000. Then we would split it 50/50 (£1,500 each). So I pay tax on the £500 which is over my allowance (£1,000). But my partner doesn't pay any tax because their allowance is £5,000. Is this correct?

Hi,

The personal savings allowance is still £1000 but as the total income is below the £17570 then she would qualify for the starter rate and that is the £5000 you are referring to.

Tax on savings interest

Thank you.