Tax on accumulation units in overseas unit trusts

PaulHoward

For accumulation units in most of the unit trusts I hold my investment platform (Irteractive Investor) puts a line into my end of year Consolidated Tax Certificate saying how much the notional dividend was, and I report this to HMRC as dividend income and make a note of the amount so that I can add it to acquisition costs as and when I come to sell. Simples (fairly!)

One year I noticed that a couple of them were not showing on my CTC - Vanguard Japan Equity Acc and Vanguard Pacific Ex Japan Equity Acc. It turns out both of these funds are based in Ireland (my others are all UK based). After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing Interactive Investor said they had made a mistake, gave me a revised CTC showing dividends for these funds and I thought that was the end of that.

But this year, again no dividend was showing, despite Trustnet showing one as having been paid for both funds. This time, Interactive Investor said they had made a mistake the previous year, that rather than paying notional dividends Overseas Reportable Funds like my two actually declare Excess Reportable Income and that they (Interactive Investor) are under no obligation to report this to me via my annual tax certificate. It is my responsibility to find out if any of the funds I have units in are Overseas Reportable Funds and, if they are, to find out how much Excess Reportable Income they have declared and what I should be reporting myself to HMRC via Self-Assessment.

So although notional dividends and ERI are treated exactly the same for income and capital gains tax purposes, Interactive Investor say they are obliged to tell me about one, but not the other.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Or a different one - i.e. has your platform reported to you the amount of ERI that you need to declare via SA? Do they, like Trustnet, call it a dividend even though strictly speaking it is not one, or do they put ERI on a separate line to dividends. Back in 2015/16 Interactive Investor did report my ERI (sort of...) albeit as UK income from unit trusts (i.e. as if it were income from a UK bond fund)!!

Does anyone know what the rules are around what platforms are obliged to include on tax certificates? I had assumed, perhaps naively, that if they were the nominee holder of any asset of mine that gave rise to a tax liability they would be obliged to report this to me....!

xylophone

https://moneyforums.citywire.co.uk/yaf_postst6727_Excess-Reportable-Income---Requirement-to-Correct.aspx