Interest on savings

[Thingsthatgo]

I have a joint savings account with DH - he is a 40% tax payer and I am a 20% tax payer.
Can we earn £1500 in total interest on this account before we have to declare it anywhere? (£1k for me and £500 for him).
Before anyone suggests it, yes there are other places we could put this money without tax implications, but I am interested in this specific question please.
Thank you!

I believe the interest is split equally - so £1500 in interest would be £750 each.
ie he would be over his tax free allowance.
edit to make clearer.

Agreed, it’s split equally and banks report directly to HMRC so if you don’t otherwise do a tax return and declare there, they will catch it eventually and usually either demand any underpaid tax or adjust tax code

thank you - that is exactly what I needed to know. So we could earn £1k interest before he needs to declare it.

Yes.

A lot of people would put savings into an account in the name of the lower-earning spouse for this reason.

The interest will be split evenly. You could:

1. put some in your name so that the interest on the joint account is £1000 and the interest on your account is £500.
2. Put 2/3 in an account in your name and 1/3 in an account in his name.

If total interest exceeds £1500 and you can't use an ISA then the money is better to be in the name of the lower tax rate spouse. If you have low earnings you may benefit from the starting rate for savings which is 0% on up to £5000.

The tax rate on savings is increasing in 2027 by 2% points.

I'd definitely split it and have individual accounts, not just for tax reasons but for safeguarding your financial security. I trust you have already maxed out the ISAs as these would avoid the tax issue altogether.