Asked to confirm tax residency by my bank

leslieknope

i got a text message from barlcays about this asking me to log into my online banking to confirm my tax residency which i thought was weird. so i did log in and all it was, was a tick box asking to confirm i am uk tax payer and do not have tax residency in the us. very weird but it literally only takes a minute (or 5 if you forgot your login like me) so worth doing to avoid your account being closed.

mt99

Lots of people from lots of different banks are getting requests to confirm they are not resident in US or anywhere else other than the UK for tax purposes. Sometimes more info is asked - it looks like HSBC is the worst offender in asking for load of information that is not really relevant to tax status - the suspicion is that the additional information requested is for marketing purposes.


My guess is that eventually everyone will have to do it (or have done it) - maybe even repeated annually. The penalties on the bank from the US for non-compliance are severe.

a&akay

A Google showed that HMRC provide a certificate if you're registered for self-assessment, so I filled in the relevant required info. Time will tell if a - I get the certificate (35 days was mentioned) and b - if this is acceptable to all the banks I have an account with. Lloyds and Halifax letters received to-date. The HMRC document will go back accordingly. Many other letters expected. Barclays seem to have the best approach, ie online - text not yet received, email would be good as well.

Ballard

mt99 wrote: »

the suspicion is that the additional information requested is for marketing purposes.

If, like me, you've ticked boxes for 'no marketing' they won't contact you for that purpose. I never get marketing or cold calls from any of my accounts.

I don't know what HSBC are asking but my guess is that they're getting as much information out of their customers now so that they would hope to have any answers for further questions that may occur in the future. Perhaps I'm giving them more credit that they deserve but that's my guess.

realaledrinker

Trump has stated that he will scrap this requirement within 90 days of taking office

JuicyJesus

realaledrinker wrote: »

Trump has stated that he will scrap this requirement within 90 days of taking office

What requirement? FATCA?

Can't think why he'd want to get rid of something intended to increase tax transparency on US citizens' assets. He's always been such an open, upfront individual that I'm sure he's got precisely nothing to hide.

In seriousness, that's a bit stupid. FATCA has led to the US Treasury getting $10bn it didn't already have since 2014. I'd call that a success.

mgdavid

JuicyJesus wrote: »

......
In seriousness, that's a bit stupid. FATCA has led to the US Treasury getting $10bn it didn't already have since 2014. I'd call that a success.

not if it's Trump's $10bn