Joint Bank Account - two states?

[SunnyOne]

Just left the estate planning attorney's office. The office will be drafting my estate plan documents.

I am divorced and my only child has an illness which prevents her from being legally competent.

I am planning to set up a trust with a bank for future disbursements after I am gone from this mortal coil. Attempting to avoid any family discord by having this handled by an outside neutral party.

My sister has agreed to act in the role of health care proxy for me.

I'd like to set up a joint bank account for any expenses my sister could incur in making arrangements to have my body shipped back to my hometown, miscellaneous costs, etc.

I know that any two adults can have a joint bank account, but my sister and I live in two different states....so seems like this could become a tax problem? I wonder if something is possible - similar to the credit card arrangement where the card is one person's name, but the other person is an authorized user?

Just thinking off the top of my head here...has anyone here been through something similar?

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I’m jointly on my mother’s checking/savings accounts. We live in the same state. She is the only one that receives tax statements for the interest. I don’t include it in any way on my taxes. She does. So I guess she’s considered primary and me secondary. But I have full access to use the account. My name is on the checks.

 

[njhowie]

Do not have to live in the same state.

Mom lives in FL. Me and Sis live in NJ. Last year mom added us both as joint owners on her savings and checking accounts. I go in to local Wells Fargo in NJ, mom goes in to local Wells Fargo in FL. Everything works fine.

As far as taxes, so long as the total amount is divided among the account holders you're fine. In our case, it's really mom's account, so whatever taxes are due on the piddly interest, she pays it all - we don't divide among us.

 

[pb4uski]

Not a problem. Usually a bank account is under one SSN and that SSN is used to report any interest. For example, we have numerous joint accounts but the income gets reported under my SSN.

 

[Koolau]

Not a problem. Usually a bank account is under one SSN and that SSN is used to report any interest. For example, we have numerous joint accounts but the income gets reported under my SSN.

Even though our joint bank balances (in two states) run to 5 figures, we never make enough interest for it to even trigger a 1099 these days. Probably moot for you as well though YMMV.

 

[audreyh1]

Not a problem. Usually a bank account is under one SSN and that SSN is used to report any interest. For example, we have numerous joint accounts but the income gets reported under my SSN.

DF had a bank account in GA with myself and a brother named on the account with rights of survivorship. I do not live in GA. The tax statement went to DF.

After DF passed, his name was removed from the account. I told them to use my SS# for tax purposes. I’m still using the account (for estate business), but it doesn’t matter that I don’t live in GA.