Tax on interest earnt in savings

unholyangel

polymaff wrote: »

I'll take that as a NO.

You're the one that wants evidence, why would I do the leg work for something YOU want?

Do you really need something to tell you explicitly why HMRC will take the word of a uninterested third party over the word of an interested party? The same holds true for PAYE income btw. They'll take your word for it - until your employer submits different data. Once that happens, they'll no longer take your word for it.

Do you live in an alternative reality where tax evasion doesn't exist and everyone tells the truth about their income because they don't want to pay less tax?

uknick

unholyangel wrote: »

You're the one that wants evidence, why would I do the leg work for something YOU want?

Do you really need something to tell you explicitly why HMRC will take the word of a uninterested third party over the word of an interested party? The same holds true for PAYE income btw. They'll take your word for it - until your employer submits different data. Once that happens, they'll no longer take your word for it.

Do you live in an alternative reality where tax evasion doesn't exist and everyone tells the truth about their income because they don't want to pay less tax?

You made a statement which can only be taken one way; bank figures provided to HMRC trump any figures you put on your return, therefore HMRC will only use the bank provided figures. When asked to provide statutory evidence you can't as it appears your statement was based upon your own supposition.

I don't disagree with you that a difference in figures may well be questioned by HMRC. But, one would hope HMRC will accept figures supported by an audit trail, not just some automatic feed from a bank.

Also, how does it work in my case where no interest shows up against my personal account? And never has.

polymaff

unholyangel wrote: »

You're the one that wants evidence, why would I do the leg work for something YOU want?

Do you really need something to tell you explicitly why HMRC will take the word of a uninterested third party over the word of an interested party? The same holds true for PAYE income btw. They'll take your word for it - until your employer submits different data. Once that happens, they'll no longer take your word for it.

Do you live in an alternative reality where tax evasion doesn't exist and everyone tells the truth about their income because they don't want to pay less tax?

Once again you present speculation as fact, then respond to a challenge with an abusive rant.

unholyangel

uknick wrote: »

You made a statement which can only be taken one way; bank figures provided to HMRC trump any figures you put on your return, therefore HMRC will only use the bank provided figures. When asked to provide statutory evidence you can't as it appears your statement was based upon your own supposition.

I don't disagree with you that a difference in figures may well be questioned by HMRC. But, one would hope HMRC will accept figures supported by an audit trail, not just some automatic feed from a bank.

Also, how does it work in my case where no interest shows up against my personal account? And never has.

No, my statement was based on my own knowledge - but that holds no weight here as I could claim to have any qualifications/experience and theres no way to verify it unless I provide personal details (and even then, no way to prove those details are mine). I also never mentioned a return.

You're neglecting that the bank will have an audit trail. I haven't said that banks can't make mistakes or that you can't challenge the figure - just that your word will no longer suffice when the banks provide actual figures.

polymaff wrote: »

Once again you present speculation as fact, then respond to a challenge with an abusive rant.

I've never been abusive on these forums once - let alone again. Disagreeing with you is not being abusive.

It is fact. If I say its something I know because xyz, will you be satisfied by that as an answer? No, because I could be lying. So I told you to ask HMRC so you can have it straight from the horses mouth.

badmemory

I suspect that HMRC know well that the bank figures are dubious. Audit trail!! Well that would be nice. The figure HMRC as already stated was less than a third of the real figure. I tried every combination of the taxable (not ISAs obviously) interest on my accounts & couldn't get close. One account alone was more than their total.


So I repeat - you cannot trust the banks to get it right & HMRC to "transcribe" it correctly. You must work it out for yourself. If you speak to HMRC they will eventually admit that it is your responsibility & your's alone to get it right.


Try reading a few of Dori2os comments - he works for them.

unholyangel

badmemory wrote: »

I suspect that HMRC know well that the bank figures are dubious. Audit trail!! Well that would be nice. The figure HMRC as already stated was less than a third of the real figure. I tried every combination of the taxable (not ISAs obviously) interest on my accounts & couldn't get close. One account alone was more than their total.


So I repeat - you cannot trust the banks to get it right & HMRC to "transcribe" it correctly. You must work it out for yourself. If you speak to HMRC they will eventually admit that it is your responsibility & your's alone to get it right.


Try reading a few of Dori2os comments - he works for them.

The mistakes will never disappear completely - you always get inexperienced people or people who do what they think is right rather than seeking clarification (can't really second guess every decision!). But I would expect, as with any change in policy, that it should get slightly better with time. There's always an adjustment period when people need to get used to new rules and mistakes are more likely (to phrase it mildly).

Manxman_in_exile

badmemory wrote: »

I suspect that HMRC know well that the bank figures are dubious. Audit trail!! Well that would be nice. The figure HMRC as already stated was less than a third of the real figure. I tried every combination of the taxable (not ISAs obviously) interest on my accounts & couldn't get close. One account alone was more than their total.


So I repeat - you cannot trust the banks to get it right & HMRC to "transcribe" it correctly. You must work it out for yourself. If you speak to HMRC they will eventually admit that it is your responsibility & your's alone to get it right.


Try reading a few of Dori2os comments - he works for them.

Out of curiosity (and because it may affect others) did you investigate why the banks' figures were wrong and get their errors corrected for future years?

badmemory

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

Out of curiosity (and because it may affect others) did you investigate why the banks' figures were wrong and get their errors corrected for future years?

No I didn't, although I probably should have. But I am so used to filing SA that I know my records are correct. I also wouldn't have known where to start. When I finally get the 18/19 figure I will investigate further.

polymaff

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

Out of curiosity (and because it may affect others) did you investigate why the banks' figures were wrong and get their errors corrected for future years?

I've come across quite a few reporting issues in recent years.

Several have been due to digit swapping, i.e. £1,234 ending up as £1,324. This implies to me that the system is a lot more manual than you'd hope.

Another is just wilful misunderstanding of how interest arises, resulting in interest arising in tax year x being reported in tax year x minus one. That particular organisation was forced to admit that they were getting it wrong but that, whatever, they felt no responsibility to correct their errors and that it was up to the tax-payer to argue it out with HMRC. They also stated that, whilst they accept that misreporting had happened, they had no intention of changing their procedures for subsequent tax years.

Then there is also straight arithmetic error by the institutions.

HMRC has talked of the "Death of the Tax Return" - implying that they will eventually rely on reporting by the institutions. I really don't see how this will work out. SA is our lifeline.

badmemory

polymaff wrote: »

HMRC has talked of the "Death of the Tax Return" - implying that they will eventually rely on reporting by the institutions. I really don't see how this will work out. SA is our lifeline.

I still keep exactly the same records as I used to keep when I was allowed to file SA. The errors by businesses that should know better is to put it mildly interesting. If we don't keep on top of it ourselves we could land up in a financial mess, which you can bet none of them will help you out of.


I think we are rapidly reaching the stage where we should all receive mandatory financial education every few years. After all, without somewhere like MSE we could all land up with no-one to ask as none of the "helplines" actually have enough info to actually help.