Bank accounts?

Does anyone have any idea whether it is best for a married couple to have a joint account or an account for each individual?

The reason I ask is a Spanish friend recently lost her husband and because they had joint accounts, the tax demand from the Government was extremely high!

I wondered if separate accounts would be better and reduce the taxes?

Thanks in advance for any help.

In theory it should not make any difference.

What normally happens in Spain is money is removed swiftly before death if possible.

So if they had seperate accounts the money could have been transferred prior to death.

Certificate at date of death will not then show money and I guess that is what caught your friends with their joint account.

So the answer kind of depends if you have time to organise your affairs before death which many do.

Well, Faro,

that tells me, to reduce the panic in transferring money close to the death of a partner, it would certainly be wise to have separate accounts!!

Yes & no

Money held in a joint accoint is deemed owned 50/50. So if you have seperate accounts and 50/50 in each account then you will be in exactly the same situation.

Have all your money in the account of the deceased and then you will have more trouble and more tax.

What sometimes happens with joing accounts is that one neglects to tell the bank the other party ahas died nd takes all the money and leaves the account dormant.

For foreign people it is a real nuisance if the only Spanish asset on death is a bank account because you will need to present certain documents to the bank to get access to funds (a probate of sorts) unless again you neglenct to tell them and somehow withdraw all the money.

Many people know they are on the way out and for foreign people that is an ideal time to sort Spanish matters out and excape Spanish inheritance tax particularly if there is not IHT in UK.

I'm not saying any/all of above is legal but it is tax we are trying to avoid so all is fair!