Is a joint bank acc included in inheritance limit ?

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creditworthy

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May I ask if a joint bank account is included as part of the inheritance threshold for a non family member or can they receive the 20k limit and the contents of a joint account also ?
Also, I see on AIB 's website that if the balance is under 50k, no tax clearance certificate is necessary for the surviving account holder to receive the account balance.
Looking at revising wills and looking at options going forward.
Thank you .
 
In my very limited experience the executor and solicitor need to establish the source of money in a joint account. This will inform them on whether ownership of the money was the person who died or the other joint account owner. For example if you opened a joint account with a companion so they could do your shopping etc if you were housebound then it may be clear that despite it being a joint account it was always your money and you controlled the spending of it, thus would form part of your estate. The executors would then distribute the money according to the will.

If you give a gift to someone in the form of a joint account then they will have to declare it to revenue as a gift and pay any tax owing, which they may do on your death. While they may easily take ownership of the money if the total is less than €50K in the account this does not circumvent the fact it was a gift to them.

Would it be easier for you to give this person €3K per annum which meets the small gift exemption rule? Over 20 years it would easily exceed €50K and they would have immediate use of the money.

In this article today in the Irish Times a judge said
“In other findings, she said the late Mr Connolly appeared have gifted a balance of more than €723,000 in a building society account to an unidentified person some months before he died.

She did not see any basis for questioning the executor’s view that the balance of this account does not form part of Mr Connolly’s estate.”
 
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creditworthy said:
May I ask if a joint bank account is included as part of the inheritance threshold for a non family member or can they receive the 20k limit and the contents of a joint account also ?
Click to expand...
The former.

Otherwise the country would be awash with joint bank accounts.
 
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