Joint ISA: Can You Have a Joint Cash ISA or Share It in Joint Names?

While couples can share joint bank accounts, Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) must always be held in one person’s name: this is a key difference between ISAs and standard savings accounts.

However, there is a circumstance in which you can add a third party to the equation, and it involves the junior ISA. At age 16, the child in whose name the account has been raised can take control of the account, but cannot withdraw money until they reach 18.

For adults, ISAs remain personal. Couples can still plan together by each using their allowance protecting up to £40,000 a year tax-free between them. Also, if one partner passes away, the other can inherit their ISA through the APS, keeping its tax advantages intact.

At a Glance

• ISAs are individual accounts and cannot be held jointly.
• Each adult has a £20,000 annual ISA allowance (2025/26).
• A Junior ISA can be managed by a parent until the child turns 16, but funds are locked until 18.
• Spouses can inherit ISA savings tax-free through the Additional Permitted Subscription (APS).
  
  

Can I have two ISAs in the same tax year?

You can open as many ISAs as you like during your lifetime. Since the rule changed on 6 April 2024, you are now allowed to open and contribute to multiple ISAs of the same type within a single tax year (for example, more than one Cash ISA or more than one Stocks & Shares ISA) as long as you stay within your overall annual ISA allowance.

The key point is that your total contributions to all your adult ISAs cannot exceed £20,000 (update 2025/26 tax year).

There are two exceptions at those general rules:

• You can only pay into one Lifetime ISA (LISA) each tax year.
• A child can only hold one Junior Cash ISA and one Junior Stocks & Shares ISA at any one time.

Can I have two ISA accounts with different banks?

Yes. You can hold multiple ISAs with different banks or providers, and since April 2024, you can also contribute to more than one ISA of the same type in a single tax year, provided your total contributions stay within the £20,000 annual allowance (2025/26).

Can I give my ISA to my spouse (husband or wife)?

Spouses can pass on their ISA investments to you if they have passed away. You can also inherit their ISA allowance.

 For example, if your husband has passed away, along with your standard ISA allowance, you can add a tax-free sum equal to the value of your husband’s ISA at the time of his death.

Can a husband and wife each have an ISA?

Yes. ISAs are individual accounts, so each spouse or civil partner must open their own. Joint ISAs are not permitted under UK rules.

To open an ISA, you must be a UK resident, or if living abroad, a Crown servant (such as in the diplomatic or overseas civil service) or their spouse or civil partner.

Although you cannot hold a joint ISA, couples can plan together strategically. Each person has their own annual ISA allowance — currently £20,000 per tax year (2025/26) — meaning a couple can save or invest up to £40,000 tax-free between them.

Example: Emma and Daniel both open Stocks & Shares ISAs. Emma contributes £15,000, while Daniel invests £20,000. Together, they have £35,000 growing tax-free within their combined allowances — even though the accounts are held separately.

Can I give my wife money to put in an ISA?

Not only can you pay into each other’s ISAs, but doing so is smart financial planning since you cannot have a joint stocks and shares ISA or joint cash ISA. If you’re married or in a civil partnership, you should take your spouse’s ISA allowance into account in addition to your own. Each adult gets an annual ISA allowance, and viewing your allowance and your spouse’s allowance together can help you plan your finances more tax-efficiently.

For example, let’s say that you have a Stocks and Shares ISA, but you’ve reached your allowance in terms of the capital gains you can make from your investments. While you can’t open a joint stocks and shares ISA, for the investments you have that fall outside of your ISA allowance, you could do what is called a “Bed and Spouse and ISA”, in which you sell the investments and rebuy them under your spouse’s name, who then invests them in an ISA where they won’t be subject to future income or capital gains taxes.

What happens if you pay into two ISAs?

From 6 April 2024, the rules around ISAs were simplified. You can now open and contribute to multiple ISAs of the same type in a tax year (for example, more than one Cash ISA or more than one Stocks & Shares ISA) as long as you remain within your annual allowance.

Your total contribution across all adult ISAs in the 2025/26 tax year remains £20,000.

Example: Jane opens two Cash ISAs in the same tax year: £8,000 in one provider and £6,000 in another. She also opens a Stocks & Shares ISA and contributes £4,000. Her total contributions for the year are £18,000, under her £20,000 allowance. Later she decides to transfer £3,000 from her first Cash ISA to another provider by way of a proper ISA transfer. Because this is a transfer and not a fresh subscription, it does not reduce her remaining allowance — she still has £2,000 contribution capacity for the year.

Setting up the closest thing to a joint ISA account

Although the answer to the question, “Can you have a joint ISA account?” is no, as they are individual savings accounts, with the word “individual” meaning just that, you can have a joint ISA in the sense of coordinating your investment activities.

Each individual account remains the property of the individual in whose name the account was started. Neither the money nor the ISA allowance can be shared. It is possible, however, to contribute your own money to your partner’s ISA.

The UK government rules say that subscriptions from third parties are acceptable unless the ISA manager is in possession of information that indicates that the cash does not belong to the ISA account holder. But in actual fact, ISA providers tend to believe this doesn’t refer to cash given to the account holder by someone else as a gift. 

So, you want to gift money to your spouse or partner, not expecting its return (the meaning of a true gift), and they decide to put it into their ISA, which is perfectly legal and above board.

While the answer to “Can you have a joint cash ISA?” or “Can you have a joint stocks and shares ISA?” remains no, you can use money that has been gifted to maximise your savings as a couple, and this is the closest thing there is to having a joint ISA.

Managing Joint ISA Strategies: Tips and Best Practices

• Track both allowances together: each adult has an annual ISA allowance (£20,000 for 2025/26). Reviewing both your allowance and your partner’s regularly helps you plan your savings more tax-efficiently.
• Balance contributions: it’s common for one partner to earn more than the other. Even so, both can benefit equally by ensuring that contributions use the full allowance in each name.
• No joint ISAs — but coordinated planning works: you can’t hold a Cash ISA or Stocks & Shares ISA jointly, but you can coordinate your savings strategy as a couple to make your money work harder.
• Optimise allowances as a couple: use both ISAs to maximise total tax-free savings — potentially £40,000 per household each tax year.

The “Bed and Spouse” ISA Strategy

If you’ve reached your annual ISA allowance or hold investments outside your ISA, a “Bed and Spouse”strategy can help reduce potential Capital Gains Tax (CGT).

Here’s how it works: you sell investments held in your name and your spouse or civil partner repurchases them in their own ISA. This effectively transfers the assets into a tax-efficient wrapper without breaching your personal ISA limit. Once inside their ISA, any future growth or income is sheltered from Income Tax and CGT.

Example: Tom has already used his £20,000 ISA allowance but holds £10,000 of shares outside it. He sells these shares, and his wife, Anna, buys the same shares within her ISA. From then on, any gains or dividends from those investments grow tax-free in Anna’s account.

Can my wife inherit my ISA?

Yes. If you pass away, your spouse or civil partner can inherit the value of your ISA and keep its tax advantages through an Additional Permitted Subscription (APS).

The APS allows them to add an extra allowance equal to the value of your ISA at the time of your death, on top of their own annual ISA allowance (£20,000 for 2025/26). This means the inherited savings can continue to grow tax-free in their name.

Example: When David passes away, his ISA is worth £50,000. His wife, Laura, already has her own ISA and £10,000 of unused allowance. With the APS, Laura can contribute up to £70,000 — her own £20,000 allowance plus the inherited £50,000 — keeping all funds sheltered from tax.

Key Takeaways

• ISAs are individual accounts: they cannot be opened or shared jointly, even between spouses or civil partners.
• You can open and contribute to multiple ISAs of the same type in a single tax year, provided total contributions remain within your annual allowance.
• Junior ISAs can be opened by a parent or guardian, with control passing to the child at 16 and access at 18.
• The “Bed and Spouse” strategy allows couples to transfer investments between partners to make better use of both ISA allowances and reduce potential CGT exposure.
• Regularly reviewing your ISA strategy helps ensure you’re maximising tax efficiency and aligning with your long-term financial goals.

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