Postby Richardzzz » Sun May 14, 2017 9:47 am
How far can you stretch this?
For example, if a spouse needs to keep taxable income at zero for some reason. Could that person work "Voluntarily" for their spouse, declare the tax on the spouses tax return and then get paid what they earned? I know this sounds convoluted. I also know that they would lose the benefit of tax allowance.
OK here's a fuller scenario: Wife doesn't work but if she declared any taxable income another government agency would pounce and start demanding regular payments.
The husband works.
The wife can make things and sell them. This would be very irregular income, not enough to warrant the regular payments the other agency would demand.
Many people work "voluntarily" for profit making organisations. So, the wife could make and sell things and declare the earning on the husbands tax return. The husband could then give the wife the money after tax as "house keeping!"
An agency like Child Maintenance Service would demand payments of a minimum of £7 a week. That's £364 a year. So as soon as any taxable income is earned they would have to be notified immediately of the "change of circumstances." But suppose the wife made one thing and sold it for £300, she wouldn't actually have made any money at all and would be down £64 at the end of the year. You can't flip-flop and say, "Now I'm earning, now I'm not, now I'm earning, now I'm not!" If the money was declared on the husbands tax return then HMRC would be happy that tax was paid.