If you have different sources of savings income, I would suggest you see an accountant to make sure you have everything in order for your SA which you will need to complete if earnings are expected to exceed personal allowance. You cannot put a price on having the correct information from the outset - it should cost about £100 if you use a small accountancy service rathe rthan the big 4 etc.

Absolutely money well spent. You should however, remeber not to take too much advice on this type of thing from forums! Its good of BB to aplogise, many wouldn't - and the IR can go back for up to 20 years if they find a recurring error in tax affairs...... Be warned!! Also, it could be the other way and you end up paying over the odds for years - and they won't come knocking to tell you!

Just checked up and found that you are absolutely correct, I was lucky to get away with it. I'll stop advocating declaring differently for each account. Thanks BB

well technically the R85 is an all or nothing shot ; you sign a declaration that you do not anticipate that your income will exceed the personal tax allowance , which is evidently not true in your case ; for that reason I suggested that you have the tax deducted and get it all back ,,,just 1 annual form to your tax office

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I have done this in the past with no objection raised by HMRC (they were aware) I held 3 accounts and only one was on R85 and tax free while the others were taxed at source.

I had these accs for 2-3 yrs without HMRC involvement as I had only savings interest income. When I became a taxpayer (Pensionable) I sent all the interest statements to them with a covering letter. They accepted that this was a sensible arrangement.

as your wife is a taxpayer the simple way is to put it all in your name and then claim the tax back , which will be a 10 minute job once a year

trying to arrange the money so that you get exactly enough income to use your tax allowance will be next to impossible ; if you have the money in 50 different accounts , you will get 50 certificates of interest and tax deducted ; just add them up and ask for the overpaid tax to be refunded ..the tax office will do the rest , except banking the cheque for you

for what you want , anything else will be too much hastle

Thanks for the replies guys. I was trying to keep things simple so as to avoid filling in a tax return if possible. It's not easy to keep track of interest paid when you move money around to take advantage of the best rates. I'll check with HMRC but I've a feeling that the spouse option will suit me best.

I've just looked into this one. I am pretty sure you can't fill out a R85 but instead fill out an R40 to claim tax back. However the HMRC website and by phone is very helpful. Also there should be a 'R85' calculator on the site which in a few minutes tells you whether or not you can fill out one.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/

Hi --- You would have to fill in a R85 for all your accounts..... enabling you to receive your whole interest gross, then at the end of the year send a tax self assessment declaring all the interest against your personal tax allowance.

The Taxman cannot insist on where or how you put your money and if you invest it in a few accounts or one, but if you fill in a R85 you need to do the same on all your accounts.

I left work last year at 52 and only have investment income. Can I put around £90000 into one account (or several accounts bearing in mind the £35000 guarantee) and fill in an R85 form for that account so that the interest is added gross to make use of my tax allowance (around £6040) and leave tax to be deducted from the interest in other accounts - or will the taxman insist that I put the rest in my wife's name as she is a tax payer?