Peer-to-peer lending sites: MSE guide discussion

jamesd

The delay in them getting full FCA authorisation. They can't offer the ISA until they have it. As the biggest there can be more work to do to meet the FCAs standards than for a smaller place. Also a lot more money at stake, so the FCA will be keen to get it right.

masonic

TheShape wrote: »

Presumably I'll only need to make a declaration at the end of the tax year at which point I should be able to get a tax statement from all my savings/current accounts and p2p platforms.

I had been considering just diverting enough savings into my S&S ISA to keep me below the PSA. Declaring interest from a couple of dozen accounts looks like a bit of a hassle.

It's harder now than it was (for basic rate taxpayers) since previously it was just the P2P accounts that were not taxed at source.

If you are close to the PSA limit, then you'll probably have to check your total interest from each account anyway, so having done that putting it in writing to HMRC is relatively easy. At some point HMRC is supposed to be using the information it receives to generate a summary you merely need to check, but that may not be ready by the end of the next tax year.

bigadaj

MyOnlyPost wrote: »

At the moment James for the £100 bonus on sign up

Just thinking is the bonus taxable?

Presumably not.

MyOnlyPost

bigadaj wrote: »

Just thinking is the bonus taxable?

Presumably not.

I would presume you would account for it the same way you do a switching incentive at a bank so I would tend to agree not.

masonic

bigadaj wrote: »

Just thinking is the bonus taxable?

Presumably not.

It depends on how RS report it, but given that 'cashback' and 'instant returns' from other platforms are not reported as income, I'd be a bit annoyed if I took up the offer and RS added it to my taxable income figure.

TheShape

Lending Works new ISA subscriptions currently suspended but having spent most of the day reading up on Lending Works/reviewing their site from top to bottom I decided that it seems like a good first step into p2p.

Of course, their website was down for a period this evening but I've signed up and made an initial deposit of £100 into the standard(non-ISA) account. Interested to see how it works out.

smoulder

bigadaj wrote: »

Just thinking is the bonus taxable?

Presumably not.

Neither referral bonuses nor loyalty bonuses (like the £100 after a year offered by RS) are taxable. They are not interest payments and do not count towards your PSA. I checked this directly with HMRC. By all means check yourself to be sure. I found quite a convenient "web chat" feature on their website - beats phoning them for sure!

bigadaj

smoulder wrote: »

Neither referral bonuses nor loyalty bonuses (like the £100 after a year offered by RS) are taxable. They are not interest payments and do not count towards your PSA. I checked this directly with HMRC. By all means check yourself to be sure. I found quite a convenient "web chat" feature on their website - beats phoning them for sure!

Maybe, Halifax reward is taxable for example, but considered to have been discharged for basic rate taxpayers up to the last tax year.

You can normally get through to Hmrc pretty easily if you ring them around 8am I've found.

Eco_Miser

bigadaj wrote: »

Maybe, Halifax reward is taxable for example, but considered to have been discharged for basic rate taxpayers up to the last tax year.

And still is. Halifax reward is an annual payment (even though it's paid monthly) paid net of 20% tax. Referral bonuses are one-offs.

Froggitt

smoulder wrote: »

Neither referral bonuses nor loyalty bonuses (like the £100 after a year offered by RS) are taxable. They are not interest payments and do not count towards your PSA. I checked this directly with HMRC. By all means check yourself to be sure. I found quite a convenient "web chat" feature on their website - beats phoning them for sure!

However, either the Zopa or RS annual "interest" statement I am sure included the bonus in that taxable amount....cant remember which one.