Unexpected request to confirm tax residency - Halifax

chrismac1

The banks are not interested they are just ticking boxes. If there is a tax authority in the G30 more incompetent than HMRC then it is the IRS, for one thing their phone queues are double ours believe it or not!

They will be snowed under with these, they are complex forms and there is no way they have the resources to cope. My advice to folk is to stop !!!!!ing and just tick the effing boxes and give it to your bank. That's what my clients have done.

kkgree1

I received this letter from the Halifax too despite being UK resident since birth.

I am with a previous poster that suspects a computer is checking places of birth and thinking they are US addresses. My place of birth is Cambridge, UK not Cambridge, Massachusetts!

I've completed and returned it, seeing as it just wanted me to confirm my NI number and how long I've lived in the UK. Pretty harmless in my opinion but would like to know it is genuine.

badmemory

chrismac1 wrote: »

The banks are not interested they are just ticking boxes. If there is a tax authority in the G30 more incompetent than HMRC then it is the IRS, for one thing their phone queues are double ours believe it or not!

They will be snowed under with these, they are complex forms and there is no way they have the resources to cope. My advice to folk is to stop !!!!!ing and just tick the effing boxes and give it to your bank. That's what my clients have done.

Did their bank accept it from them? Mine said they wouldn't, although I haven't tried in person. They are currently denying all knowledge.

miller_man

i have made contact on 03458509064 they say its genuine which anyone can confirm. so i contacted the halifax and they confirmed this also saying they are obligated to request the information and pass it on to the relevant tax authority to comply with CDOT inter governmental agreements, i did not provide a TIN number so guess it will be returned.

zerog

miller_man wrote: »

i have made contact on 03458509064 they say its genuine which anyone can confirm. so i contacted the halifax and they confirmed this also saying they are obligated to request the information and pass it on to the relevant tax authority to comply with CDOT inter governmental agreements, i did not provide a TIN number so guess it will be returned.

If you call the number a phisher asks you to call, they will obviously say that it is genuine.

I'm sure this Halifax stuff is real, however, if the consequences of not answering the questions are that something will be reported to someone, then so what?

I have not been to the US since I was 12 years old, I don't intend to go there in the future, I have no relatives there and no financial links, so if they want to report something to the US, let them.

On the other hand, Halifax already has my NI number and I'm sure they report stuff to HMRC, so there wouldn't be any harm in answering.

iltisman

I got one of these and it lit my scam warning light ,but I think scammers would have asked for more detail. Poor show from The Halifax on the covering letter not explaining what to do if you have never left UK or banked overseas.

RobertJPA

I have been looking at the form, and it is to be filled in by 'the account holder', but nowhere does it identify the account in question, nor ask for an account number. I would expect a bank to include such details. From what people are saying here, it looks genuine but is distinctly sloppy, the Halifax is evidently not especially interested.
Also: is the use of phone numbers that can't be independently confirmed breaching any kind of code of practice?

mad4fev

They ought to be interested as the letter is 'signed' by their Director of Savings.


Whether it's genuine or not any letter supposedly from a bank, which they know nothing about, comes, and is to be returned to, an address not associated with said bank and is asking for personal details would not be getting returned by me.

BarkingMad

I have received the letter and was perplexed. I called the telephone number and after a 10 min wait the call was answered.

A discussion about how they needed to take me through security before they would talk to me was had. I was saying how did I know they were "Halifax". Name, PostCode and finally DOB. This failed, and the call could not go forward. Then, another system was checked and they could match by DOB. Suspicious.

The person I spoke to was employed by Ernst and Young (EY) and had been contracted by Lloyds / BofS in order to help with this exercise. In my case, they just wanted confirmation I was a UK resident by me providing my NI and returning the form.

I argued that Halifax must have my NI number because I have an ISA with them.

I wonder if every bank will be asking me to fill in the same details? I hope not! Surely it would be better to get this data from the HMRC? They can see I have paid tax all my working life.

I pointed out that people are thinking this letter may be scam and they located this thread.

Moony67

I too got this letter from Halifax on Friday, phoned number on letter and it went dead everytime. Called Halifax helpline who said the number wasn't theirs and to stop calling it as it sounded like a scam. They told me to take my letter into my local branch in Essex, which I did the next day. First member of staff said "I got this letter and I thought it was fishy, I haven't done anything with it." Second member of staff hadnt seen it before either but tried number and this time it was working. I also asked her to check return address as I thought it looked dodgy and she said it was legitimate. Apparently tax rules have now changed so the first £1000 interest you get on your savings now will be tax free, and these letters need to be filled in as part of the process. I'm still unconvinced so haven't posted mine. Extremely bad setup from all parties as far as I'm concerned.