Residency Letter, Barclay's are at it now...

canadabob

I have just got a letter seemingly from Barclay's regarding my country of residency. I have had accounts with them for over 20 years, during which time I have been a UK resident and lifelong UK citizen,

After reading some of the posts in here I guess the letter is/was legit but according to HMRC's web site, the request from Barclay's could well be past its sell by {sort of} and seemingly could incur Barclay's a £3,000 penalty ?

You must send the notification letter to any qualifying clients between 30 September 2016 and 31 August 2017.

If you don’t identify and send the notification letter to clients who need it, you could be charged a one-off penalty of £3,000.


As it's well past 31st August will Barclay's have to pay this penalty charge ?
Thankfully {for the Banks} it's not a per client charge...

I'm retired, living off my pension, with only a modest amount in Barclay's, not enough to attract attention of the tax man in the UK or anywhere else, but I really don't like to be mailing out a letter giving my DOB, address, National Insurance number and a copy of my signature. If this was a scam {what's to stop imitation letters being sent out} or if my letter was intercepted along the way {by Post Office workers} as has happened with credit cards recently, it would leave us wide open to fraud.

So much for "Data Protection", for the most part our under FCA rules Banks already "Know their Clients" and have our residency / citizenship etc on file.

IF they have slipped up and don't have all the info required wouldn't it be better if these letters asked us to "call in at the Branch" or drop the completed forms off at the Branch ?

Seems that the Banks have pawned the job off to E&Y {nice work if you can get it}, but going off what a shoddy job they did of the letter how can we be sure that their Data Security is sufficient to protect our confidential details !

It's not just the "sell by date" the 31st August 2017 they didn't comply with, but the HMRC site also says that...

If you’re a relevant person the set text must say:


“From 2016, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is getting an unprecedented amount of information about people’s overseas accounts, structures, trusts, and investments from more than 100 jurisdictions worldwide, thanks to agreements to increase global tax transparency. This gives HMRC unprecedented levels of information to check that, as in most cases, the right tax has been paid.

If you have already declared all of your past and present income or gains to HMRC, including from overseas, you do not need to worry. But if you are in any doubt, HMRC recommends that you read the factsheet attached to help you decide now what to do next.”
Use this exact text, don’t make any changes.

Apart from the set text, you can decide what else to include in the covering letter.

There's no mention of the above in the letter that I've received !!!

I'll go into my local Barclay's to ask if they already have the details required to comply with CRS, I'm sure they do, if they do, why have I got this letter.

jonesMUFCforever

If it came from Barclay's it is a scam - if it came from Barclays then take it to your local branch for confirmation.

shortcrust

Perhaps some volunteer work?

Ben8282

But what does the letter from Barclays actually say? You are quoting from HMRC website but you don't mention what is actually written in the letter from Barclays and what information they actually want. If they want you to confirm that you are resident in the UK that's fine, but don't go providing Barclays with your national insurance number etc as it is none of their business.

PeacefulWaters

Do they think you might be a USA citizen? Do they mention FATCA?

badmemory

It may be possible to avoid replying at all to this letter if Barclays have done what Lloyds/Halifax have done. If you go into your online banking they may have added bits about place of birth etc.

Regarding the NI No they also now seem to need this as they are required to notify HMRC of any interest you receive which is now added to your accounts tax free.

As for why you have received this letter, this could well be something to do with banks (as in just about all of them) general incompetence & involvement in money laundering. They are now having to do lots of tick boxing to prove they aren't involved & you are just another box they are wanting to tick.

If the letters are as bad as the original Halifax ones were, which not only read like they were fraudulent but also looked fraudulent, complain in writing & get a nice little bonus in your account. Just to add the original Halifax letters were in black & white only & were so badly written most primary school children could have done better, although to be absolutely fair they seemed to have used a spellchecker.

Just to add that I did reply to my Halifax letter but when I signed I did not sign as I would if signing a cheque, which is only wise if you are writing a letter accusing a company of fraudulent behaviour!

Uxb

Ben8282 wrote: »

but don't go providing Barclays with your national insurance number etc as it is none of their business.

It most certainly IS their business.

In future your tax account will be automatically having the amount of interest received from all banks, building societies filled in for you.
So you cannot anymore "forget" to supply I.Revenue with the amounts

To do this properly and fully joined up needs your NI number for the banks and the I.R to cross check against.
In effect you NI number is becoming your national ID number.

eskbanker

Uxb wrote: »

So you cannot anymore "forget" to supply I.Revenue with the amounts

....not least because "Inland Revenue" ceased to exist in April 2005, when its functions were absorbed into the newly-created HMRC

TheShape

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Do they think you might be a USA citizen? Do they mention FATCA?

Perhaps they think OP is Canadian!

Chalkius

Ben8282 wrote: »

But what does the letter from Barclays actually say? You are quoting from HMRC website but you don't mention what is actually written in the letter from Barclays and what information they actually want. If they want you to confirm that you are resident in the UK that's fine, but don't go providing Barclays with your national insurance number etc as it is none of their business.

Depends on what they need it for. If a person has any savings accounts with a bank then it's needed for tax reasons.

eskbanker

Chalkius wrote: »

Depends on what they need it for. If a person has any savings accounts with a bank then it's needed for tax reasons.

Presumably any interest-paying accounts, which brings numerous current accounts into play too....