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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

dp has made an account in my name to avoid capital gains tax without telling me

72 replies

entiledornot · 14/02/2015 08:10

Dh has made some investments that he wanted to cash out. Without telling me he used a copy of my driving licence to open an account and then transfer 7000 to my account without me knowing. Confused He just says I thought I wouldn't mind and I was out at the time. I knew he had some investments, but no idea they were worth so much.

Aibu to think this just isn't acceptable? Both from doing it in my name and from avoiding tax?

OP posts:
BMW6 · 14/02/2015 08:14

Of course he is BU - it is fraud and tax evasion.......every chance he will be caught.

Surely a signature is needed to open a bank account Confused?

Cabrinha · 14/02/2015 08:16

Well, he'd better hope you don't walk away £7K up to teach him a lesson!

The tax avoidance - I don't have an issue with that, if it's within the law. Avoidance is not evasion.

I would go bananas at someone opening an account in my name though, absolutely unacceptable.

I'm interested that you didn't know the value of his investments. Why? Because you're not interested, or because he kept it from you?

In a marriage that's not acceptable to me, in a boyfriend it is. I don't know where a "DP" is on that scale.

But I do know that if someone isn't close enough to share their financial details with me, they're sure as he'll not close enough to "borrow" my account to avoid tax. And that would be with pernission!

Fabulassie · 14/02/2015 08:20

There's something really wrong here. I need to know more about your financial relationship to understand what exactly the situation is... But of course yanbu to be unhappy he's done this.

Original poster
entiledornot · 14/02/2015 08:21

He didn't open a bank account, he opened a share dealing account apparently just by using a photo of my driving licence.

I knew he started off with some money and was playing around with it a while ago, I had no idea it had grown so much. I'm really torn, if he had of asked me it would have been completely differen, its just that he took the liberty and genuinely thought that was fine

OP posts:
BMW6 · 14/02/2015 08:22

What he's done is Evasion, not Avoidance - much more serious. He is not operating within the law to reduce his tax bill - he is hiding the profit made by putting it in your name, when it had nothing to do with you.

UncleT · 14/02/2015 08:23

WTF?? That is OUTRAGEOUS behaviour and a severe breach of truest trust (and, very likely, the law). What an idiot - alarm bells going off big time here.

UncleT · 14/02/2015 08:23

Should read just 'breach of trust'

wowfudge · 14/02/2015 08:25

The personal allowance for CGT is £11k so that's a lot of money with the sum he has put in your account. I'm not sure just putting it in an account in your name is an effective way of avoiding tax though because it is where it has come from that is important - is there something else in your name or joint names that you don't know about? An investment or purchase he has sold for example. Or is he not as clever as he thinks he is and hasn't thought it all through?

Opening an account in someone else's name like that is fraud and I would be seriously pissed off if DP did that to me. Financial matters should be discussed and agreed upon. Your DH is being high-handed and dismissive of you to do what he's done. I wouldn't be able to trust someone who acted like that and would be demanding an explanation and asking on what planet he thought it would be okay to do that.

It's in your name: ask him how he would feel if you spent it, without telling him. My major concern would be that he is hiding a potential bigger fraud and I'd be requesting that he told me exactly what was going on. He has involved you by opening an account in your name and you are potentially an unwitting accomplice if he's evading tax/committing some sort of other fraud.

Trickydecision · 14/02/2015 08:26

What a pity it wasn't £7 million, then the taxman could not have cared less.

FinallyHere · 14/02/2015 08:27

Umm, sorry to be unromantic here, one of the major benefits of marriage, is that you can transfer assets between the partners to the marriage without incurring capital gains tax. You each have a £10k annual allowance on gains so between you can make £20k annual with no capital gains tax to pay.

Certainly not illegal, entirely within the law as support for marriage.

I'd be a bit ??? that you didn't know about it.

If he has been telling you and you haven't been paying much attention, now is the time to wake up and get a grip about your financial position and not leave everything to him. On the other hand, if he isn't telling you in advance......now may be the time to sit down together and talk it through. Good luck.

VivaLeBeaver · 14/02/2015 08:30

Doing it behind your back, etc isn't good. Legally you can't go round opening accounts in other people's names.

However if he'd discussed it with you and you'd agreed I think it's tax avoidance not evasion and is legal.

I'm not sure but when we very briefly had a second property and were considering renting it out I did loads of reading on tax implications, etc. there was info on websites (not forums) saying when selling the house if it's in joint names then that will help avoid CGT. I'd inherited the house and an accountant I spoke to said put it in both names for this reason.

fredfredgeorgejnr · 14/02/2015 08:31

BMW6 How do you know it's evasion? Shares can be gifted to your wife (or husband or civil partner) free of capital gains tax, the offences he's committed would not be tax ones, just fraud against his wife in selling what's hers.

The lack of conversation about it is all that's bad, and that really depends on how finances are generally handled by the couple, and just how urgent it was that it be done before he could ask the OP to actually set up the account.

QuintessentiallyInShade · 14/02/2015 08:31

Is he a "dp" or a "dh" ?
You use both, and I think it matters if you are married or not.

UncleT · 14/02/2015 08:31

Finally the bit where he took her ID and opened the account in her name with neither permission nor knowledge would be illegal. Fuck the tax issue.

cozietoesie · 14/02/2015 08:35

That really isn't on - even if it's avoidance, you just don't use someone else's details like that.

Out of interest, how did you find out - and are you certain that he hasn't used your personal details in other ways?

Original poster
entiledornot · 14/02/2015 08:37

Ha yes he's a dh!

I found out as he casualy told me the money would be arriving in my account, he's joked about getting a windfall but I really just thought it was a joke. But the money did appear in my account yesterday

OP posts:
BMW6 · 14/02/2015 08:44

Oh and OP - if he gets caught he is still liable for the tax even if he has "given" the money to you - double whammy if you decided to keep his gift......

balancingfigure · 14/02/2015 08:45

Actually this is the sort of thing I would do. Eg decide we should move some money to ISAs and open accounts for him and me. I would tell him but not necessarily phone him to check first. But then he is happy for me to make decisions like these. I also have applied for credit cards for him!

However we are completely transparent with our finances and there wouldn't be any money he didn't know about

Anerak · 14/02/2015 08:50

How did you find out? If he told you directly/that day then it implies he genuinely did it on a whim and thought you wouldn't mind but if he told you quite some time after or you found out in some other way then you probably have to investigate what he's actually up to because it is indeed quite suspicious and in any case you're not being unreasonable to be annoyed

cozietoesie · 14/02/2015 08:50

Some years back, there was quite a (then) famous court case where a man had put an extremely large amount of money - seven figures - in the name of his then wife for tax avoidance purposes. She immediately took the lot and decamped to the West Indies with another man. He went to law about it and the judge, grinning, said something along the lines of 'He who plays with fire must be prepared to be burned' - and dismissed his case in its entirety.

But at least (!) she knew about it in advance. I would go ape if someone used my personal details without asking my perrmission in advance. Apart from making you complicit in anything potentially dodgy, it's treating you as nothing more than a money vehicle.

How can you now be certain that that's the only thing he's done?

BMW6 · 14/02/2015 08:50

BMW6 How do you know it's evasion? Shares can be gifted to your wife (or husband or civil partner) free of capital gains tax, the offences he's committed would not be tax ones, just fraud against his wife in selling what's hers.

He hasn't gifted shares. He has made a profit from sale of investments and is trying to hide it from HMRC by putting the profit in account under wife's name.

For example - my DH is self employed and has business bank account into which all takings are paid, and out of which all business expenses are met. If DH paid some takings into my personal account to supress profit figures, that is Evasion, not Avoidance.

ClashCityRocker · 14/02/2015 08:50

Bmw6 he won't be liable for the tax as spousal transfers are exempt from cgt. It's often used in tax planning.

The issue here is fraudulently opening an account in her nam and not telling her before the fact. Given that he's transferred 7k, it's probably that he's made a gain of around 18k and not told her.

Nerf · 14/02/2015 08:51

Bmw6 your advice falls into that unique mumsnet category of ' incorrect information designed to scaremonger' taxman couldnt care less, its actively promoted by tax advisers with the caveat that the gift is real and the donor needs to be aware the donee could keep it.

ClashCityRocker · 14/02/2015 08:52

Bmw6

My understanding was he's opened up a share dealing account in her name, sold the shares he's transferred into her account and then transferred the proceeds into her account, but perhaps ive misunderstood.

Nerf · 14/02/2015 08:54

Bmw6 your Dhaka could however give you a little admin job paid at below level s required for Nic etc and offset tax that way. If you haven't used your personal allowance e and don't mind a bit of overpaid filing.