Can you pay into your partner's ISA, or give your ISA to your child?

Can you give someone your ISA?

No, but you can give them money to put in theirs. gov.uk says you cannot hold an ISA with someone else, and the ISA Regulations require everything in an ISA to belong to its holder. An ISA transfer moves your ISA to another provider, and it stays yours. You can take money out and give it, and what happens next depends on who receives it.

Giving ISA money, at a glance

ISA allowance, 2026/27

£20,000

Per person, for money that is theirs

Junior ISA limit, 2026/27

£9,000

Per child, from everyone who pays in

Inheritance Tax annual exemption

£3,000

Per giver, each tax year

Inheritance Tax on gifts to a spouse or civil partner

None

If they live in the UK permanently

Can you pay into your partner’s ISA?

Only with money that is theirs. HMRC’s guidance for providers says investors “must subscribe with their own cash”, and the ISA Regulations say an ISA is paid into by one person, with that person’s cash. The money in it must be in the holder’s beneficial ownership: it is theirs, not held for someone else.

That does not mean every payment has to come from the holder’s own bank account. HMRC’s guidance says cash from third parties “can be accepted without question unless the ISA manager holds information that shows that the cash does not belong to the investor”. It also lets providers set their own conditions, so whether a provider takes a payment from your account into your partner’s ISA is up to the provider, and its terms are the place to check. If it does not, the money can go to your partner first, for them to pay in.

Either way, the payment uses your partner’s allowance, not yours, because it is their subscription. You cannot open an ISA for a partner either: HMRC’s guidance says nobody can apply for an ISA on behalf of someone else unless they are legally authorised, for example under a lasting power of attorney. See how to open an ISA.

Can you use your partner’s ISA allowance?

Not for money that stays yours. Each allowance belongs to one person, so paying your savings into a partner’s ISA while they remain yours does not fit the rules. If you give the money to your partner outright, it becomes theirs, along with anything it earns, and their allowance covers it. That is how a couple can pay up to £40,000 a year into ISAs between them, £20,000 each in separate accounts. See can you have a joint ISA and how the ISA allowance works.

The Cash ISA limit is the same £20,000 for each of you: in the Budget on 28 October 2026 the government said it will keep that limit for all savers over 18 from April 2027. Interest in an ISA is not taxed, while savings interest outside one can be, at rates the Budget said will rise to 24%, 44% and 49% from 6 April 2027.

An illustration, with round numbers and not tied to anyone. Alex has already paid £20,000 into ISAs this tax year and has £10,000 more to save. Alex’s spouse, Sam, has paid nothing in. Alex gives Sam the £10,000, and Sam pays it into a Cash ISA in Sam’s own name (our Cash ISA table compares rates). Sam has then used £10,000 of Sam’s allowance, with £10,000 left, and the money belongs to Sam.

Is there tax on a gift to your partner?

It depends on whether you are married or in a civil partnership. gov.uk says there is no Inheritance Tax on gifts between spouses or civil partners: you can give them as much as you like during your lifetime, as long as they live in the UK permanently and you are legally married or in a civil partnership.

An unmarried partner is treated like anyone else. gov.uk says no tax is due on gifts if you live for 7 years after giving them, unless the gift is part of a trust, and that gifts given less than 7 years before you die may be taxed. Some gifts are exempt even then, including up to £3,000 in total each tax year under the annual exemption, and an unused annual exemption can be carried forward for one tax year. gov.uk also says to keep a record of each gift: what, to whom, its value and when.

In the illustration, if Alex and Sam were not married or in a civil partnership, the £10,000 would go into Sam’s ISA in exactly the same way. Assuming Alex made no other gifts, £3,000 of it would be covered by Alex’s annual exemption, or £6,000 if last tax year’s was unused, and the other £7,000 or £4,000 could count for Inheritance Tax if Alex died within 7 years.

Can you give your ISA to your child?

No. You cannot hand an ISA to another person, and gov.uk says you cannot transfer money between a Junior ISA and an adult ISA. What you can give is the money in it, once it is out.

Taking it out ends its tax-free status. HMRC’s transfer guidance says cash or investments paid to the investor, rather than straight to a new provider, are treated as a withdrawal and lose their tax-free wrapper. On a non-flexible ISA a withdrawal gives no allowance back, because HMRC says the amount subscribed is not reduced by it. With a flexible ISA, gov.uk says you can put cash back in the same tax year without using more allowance. A withdrawal from a Lifetime ISA for anything other than a first home, age 60 or over or terminal illness carries a 25% charge. See ISA withdrawals.

A child aged 18 or over can open their own ISA and pay your gift in from their own £20,000 allowance. If they are also under 40, they can open a Lifetime ISA, which has its own £4,000 yearly limit inside that allowance and a 25% government bonus. See the Lifetime ISA.

If you claim Universal Credit, or might, giving savings away can matter: DWP’s guidance says people are treated as still having capital they deprive themselves of to get Universal Credit or more of it. See does an ISA count as savings.

How do you give ISA money to a child under 18?

Through a Junior ISA. gov.uk says anyone can pay money into a Junior ISA, but the total paid in cannot go over £9,000 in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, across the child’s cash and stocks and shares Junior ISAs. Only a parent or guardian with parental responsibility can open one for a child under 16. The money belongs to the child and cannot be taken out until they turn 18, with some exceptions. See Junior ISAs.

An illustration. A parent takes £5,000 out of a Cash ISA and pays it into their child’s Junior ISA. Grandparents have already paid in £2,000 this tax year, so £7,000 of the £9,000 limit was left, and after the parent’s payment £2,000 is left for anyone else. Unless the parent’s ISA is flexible, taking the money out frees up none of the parent’s own allowance.

A Junior ISA is also outside a tax rule on money that parents give their children. gov.uk says HMRC must be told if a child gets more than £100 of interest in a tax year from money given by a parent, and the parent pays tax on all of it if it is above their own Personal Savings Allowance. The £100 limit does not apply to money in a Junior ISA, or to money from grandparents, relatives or friends.

Gifts to a child follow the normal Inheritance Tax rules, and gov.uk’s exemptions include regular payments from income you can afford, such as paying into a savings account for a child under 18. The grandparents’ guide to Junior ISAs sets out each exemption.

What if your ISA holds investments?

The same rules apply to a Stocks and Shares ISA: it cannot be passed on, and anything taken out loses its tax-free status. HMRC’s guidance says investors can ask their provider to withdraw their investments, and that the provider must give them the market value of each investment, in writing, at the date it leaves the ISA.

gov.uk says there is no Capital Gains Tax on gains from ISAs, so investments can be sold inside the ISA and the cash withdrawn and given. Taken out as they are, shares become ordinary holdings: gov.uk lists shares that are not in an ISA among the assets Capital Gains Tax is paid on, and counts giving an asset away as disposing of it. You do not usually pay Capital Gains Tax on gifts to a spouse or civil partner.

Whoever receives the shares cannot put them straight into their own ISA. gov.uk says you cannot transfer non-ISA shares you already own into an ISA unless they come from an employee share scheme, so they would have to sell them and pay in the cash from their own allowance.

Can a partner inherit your ISA allowance?

Only a spouse or civil partner. gov.uk says that if your spouse or civil partner dies you can inherit their ISA allowance: as well as your normal allowance, you can add a tax-free amount up to the value they held in their ISA when they died, or its value when it closes. HMRC’s guidance for providers calls this an additional permitted subscription and sets out the conditions:

• You must have been living together at the date of death, not separated under a court order, under a deed of separation or because the marriage or civil partnership had broken down.
• It is available whether or not you inherit the ISA savings, and it can be paid in from other cash.
• Cash must be paid in within 3 years of the death or, if later, within 180 days of the administration of the estate being completed.
• Providers do not have to accept it, and it cannot be paid into a Junior ISA.

An unmarried partner or a child who inherits ISA savings gets the money, not the allowance, so it can only go into their own ISA within their own limit. See what happens to your ISA when you die for how the value is worked out.