Switching incentives- taxable?

olbas_oil

Are these taxable, either as income or CGT?

colsten

Neither.................

Zkr65

In theory everything is taxable in some way..

No income tax or CGT at all.. the only tax you could get is on the balance related interest if its Net.. but that's standard and not linked directly to the incentive..

It's basically the same as if xxx amount of cash was paid into the account over the counter.

FireWyrm

Geez, dont give HMRC any more ideas, they already want to just walk in and out of our accounts whenever it suits them.

anoncol

Good luck making a living from it.

cancunia

I know this is an old thread, but it's exactly the question that is on my mind while I'm doing my 2014/15 return. I've switched a few times and now am wondering if / how I need to declare the switch incentives on my tax return? The closest I've come to understanding how these payments are treated is that they are CGT related.

This may have been dealt with elsewhere so any redirections to other threads are welcome.

Thanks

HappyMJ

cancunia wrote: »

I know this is an old thread, but it's exactly the question that is on my mind while I'm doing my 2014/15 return. I've switched a few times and now am wondering if / how I need to declare the switch incentives on my tax return? The closest I've come to understanding how these payments are treated is that they are CGT related.

This may have been dealt with elsewhere so any redirections to other threads are welcome.

Thanks

You don't declare them they are not taxed.

The payment is an incentive. It's the same as offering a customer a loyalty discount on a product. HP gave me £150 cash back for purchasing a laptop. That's not taxed either.

Opening a bank account is the same as purchasing a product. It's a service instead of a product. You also don't declare cash back from Quidco and Topcashback even if you didn't buy anything or use a service to get the cash back.

cancunia

Thanks for the quick reply, it's the answer I was hoping for. Is there a formal / official reference somewhere?

HappyMJ

cancunia wrote: »

Thanks for the quick reply, it's the answer I was hoping for. Is there a formal / official reference somewhere?

The HMRC and legislation. I tried finding the exact bit of law exempting these payments from tax but it's a very big piece of law to wade through. Good luck. You have a go if you want.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/5/contents

Telegraph article says in http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/creditcards/10027264/Will-I-have-to-pay-tax-on-credit-card-cashback.html "We put Hargreaves' claim to HMRC. They dismissed it as "nonsense". A spokesman said: "There is no question of tax becoming payable on cashbacks received from credit, debit and loyalty cards or any other kind of cashback payment.""

The £5 monthly payment from Halifax is considered an annual payment though and is taxable at source.

cancunia

OK, that's good enough for me, thanks given for your reply & help. The Telegraph link has enough info to ease my concerns. I've asked the Halifax for a Tax Cert on my rewards account from the last tax year, if there's any reference to the Switching Reward I'll report back.

DragonQ

Even if they were taxable, I would estimate approximately zero people have paid tax on them, ever.