I have a joint bank account with my wife. We view the money in that account as being owned by us jointly and in equal shares. We want to give our son, who is married, some money. We have never used the facility for giving money to a family member within the inheritance tax (IHT) annual exemption. We want to give £24,000 to help with some stamp duty land tax. The plan is, for each of us, from and using our joint bank account: 
1. Me to give our son £3,000 for 2024/25  
2. Me to give our daughter-in-law £3,000 for 2024/25 
3. My wife to give our son £3,000 for 2024/25 
4. My wife to give our daughter-in-law £3,000 for 2024/25 
5. Me to give our son £3,000 for 2025/26 
6. Me to give our daughter-in-law £3,000 for 2025/26 
7. My wife to give our son £3,000 for 2025/26 
8. My wife to give our daughter-in-law £3,000 for 2025/26 
That's £24,000. It can be given by eight separate cheques, by eight separate transfers or by one large transfer to their own joint bank account. Is it allowable and IHT-free? No seven-year wait? Or if not, which part is breaking the rules? 

Arthur Weller replies: 

See HMRC’s Inheritance Tax Manual at IHTM14141, IHTM14143 and IHTM14144. Each individual is entitled to an annual exemption that entitles them to gift £3,000 without any IHT implications (i.e., it does not count as a potentially exempt transfer, and is not affected by the seven-yearrule). If the annual exemption is unused in a tax year, it can be carried forward into the next tax year, but it cannot be carried forward any further. So, if unused in a previous tax year, an individual effectively has an allowance of £6,000. The mistake you have made is that the annual exemption is a total per donor for the year, and not per recipient (see IHTM14143). This means that between you and your wife, you have total allowances of £12,000, not £24,000 as you have assumed (by giving to two recipients).