Submitted tax return and forgot to include £14 from Barclays

jumperabv3

I have an accountant that does assist with the completion of Self Assessment but since there is a bank holiday I wanted to take advantage of just asking this online in the forum.

The accountant has already filed my SA for Apr16-Apr17.
I got an email today from Barclays about the need to declare the Blue Rewards (£7 per month) that I got from them before December 2016.

I started getting this in October so I only got it for 2 months before Barclays has taken care of this and it doesn't require filing any longer from December 2016.

My question is simple - should I contact the accountant and ask to add the £14 to my tax return or hypothetically speaking, perhaps that £14 is such a small amount that nobody is really going to bother with? I mean what's the right way to do this practically speaking without too many hassles?

Thanks in advance!

Mr.Generous

I wouldn't worry about it, tax man wouldn't even bother collecting in the highly unlikely event of it being picked up.

Pennywise

It really depends on whether it has any adverse effects. For example, if you are just under the higher rate threshold, and the £14 pushes you over, you're £1000 interest zero rate band suddenly reduces to just £500, which could make quite a difference to the tax due - probably far more than £14!!! Same applies to other tax cliff-edge thresholds. So, before you make any hasty decisions to just ignore it, you really need to check out just what effect it has. If it genuinely means no more tax or a trivial amount, then fair enough, but you can't make that judgement without doing the number crunching.

jumperabv3

Pennywise wrote: »

If it genuinely means no more tax or a trivial amount, then fair enough, but you can't make that judgement without doing the number crunching.

It is genuinely means no changes definitely not with the threshold, I was just wondering if Barclays is reporting it via someway to HMRC who would compare their numbers somehow and in that case I don't want my tax return to be flagged because of such a small amount, but if it's not then as far as I'm aware that's 20% (my rate) * £14 = £2.80 so I could owe another £2.80 to HMRC which is not being reported - am I getting it right?

Not saying £2.80 = £0.00 but just wondering how do you go on with this, practically speaking? I tend to follow Mr. G's advice but happy to hear other thoughts, it's not the amount but the practicality of what's the best to do.

jumperabv3

jumperabv3 wrote: »

It is genuinely means no changes definitely not with the threshold, I was just wondering if Barclays is reporting it via someway to HMRC who would compare their numbers somehow and in that case I don't want my tax return to be flagged because of such a small amount, but if it's not then as far as I'm aware that's 20% (my rate) * £14 = £2.80 so I could owe another £2.80 to HMRC which is not being reported - am I getting it right?

Not saying £2.80 = £0.00 but just wondering how do you go on with this, practically speaking? I tend to follow Mr. G's advice but happy to hear other thoughts, it's not the amount but the practicality of what's the best to do.

Actually it's £8 * 0.20 = £1.60 because the "net" profit is £4 and not £7 but Barclays in their email said to treat it as £7.00

Again, I know it's really "peanuts money" but would just happy to hear any thoughts (if any), thanks.

madgagoo

jumperabv3 wrote: »

Actually it's £8 * 0.20 = £1.60 because the "net" profit is £4 and not £7 but Barclays in their email said to treat it as £7.00

Again, I know it's really "peanuts money" but would just happy to hear any thoughts (if any), thanks.

No, it's £14 not £8. You can't offset the expense of having a bank account against the taxable income from that account.

Doesn't exactly seem fair to me but that's the law, so that's what we have to declare!

For OP - tell your accountant and let them decide if it needs reporting. Tax can throw up some ridiculously complicated scenarios with all the different rates and allowances, so even a small amount might have a big effect.

theburningcat

The cost of asking your accountant is probably more than £14 and your accountant is probably going to tell you that you should (because they have to) but it's up to you. For such a small amount and a genuine oversight, I wouldn't worry about it.

jumperabv3

theburningcat wrote: »

The cost of asking your accountant is probably more than £14 and your accountant is probably going to tell you that you should (because they have to) but it's up to you. For such a small amount and a genuine oversight, I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks, so 2 people in this thread say no.
1 person says yes.
So the final result is 2-1?

As long as Barclays is not reporting this to HMRC then I'd probably choose to forget about it, and indeed like you said the costs/hassles involved are not worth it if it really doesn't matter to anyone

I'm usually very punctual with my returns and I honestly forgot about this ... next year there won't be any need to report it because Barclays has sorted it out, so I tend to agree with the 2 posters here who advised to forget about it - but if you have any additional comments please free to shoot them out.

One more thing, there is honestly no change whatsoever to any tax threshold with this, none whatsoever - there is just additional liability of £2.80 - I have no problem when I file my returns next year to report additional £14 and include it there as I don't want to steal not even 1 penny, just from practical way of looking at the current situation I tend to agree it's worth putting it asides (and just add the £14 next year in order to be fair and just up to the last penny, the last thing I want is to "steal" £2.80 from the government).