HMRC, dividend income on GIA, and PAYE

JamesRobinson48

On this forum, one recurring topic has been the (in)accuracy of personal savings interest that banks and building societies must annually report to HMRC for savers' income tax purposes.

Please advise, is there a similar mandatory process for investment platforms, stockbrokers, etc  to report to HMRC the amounts of dividends on shareholdings or funds held on their platforms on a General Investment Account (GIA), by retail investors?  And if so, is that data used by HMRC to populate its records of individuals' taxable income?

I ask because my elderly father receives more than £2k GIA dividends each year (the amount varies naturally). He is full up for ISAs and PBs and is glad to make full use of the £2k zero rate band for GIA dividend income. HMRC administers my father's tax through PAYE only and does not ask him for a tax return. As holder of a POA for his affairs, I would like to understand if HMRC would obtain information about his GIA dividends from the investment platforms direct (AJ Bell in this case); or if not, ought I to manually notify HMRC each year of the actual amount of my father's dividends.

dunstonh

ought I to manually notify HMRC each year of the actual amount of my father's dividends.

Yes.  Self assessment means the individual needs to notify HMRC of any potential tax they owe.    HMRC are usually around 2-3 years behind in collating the data they have and seeing if there is an anomaly.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

JamesRobinson48 said:

On this forum, one recurring topic has been the (in)accuracy of personal savings interest that banks and building societies must annually report to HMRC for savers' income tax purposes.

Please advise, is there a similar mandatory process for investment platforms, stockbrokers, etc  to report to HMRC the amounts of dividends on shareholdings or funds held on their platforms on a General Investment Account (GIA), by retail investors?  And if so, is that data used by HMRC to populate its records of individuals' taxable income?

I ask because my elderly father receives more than £2k GIA dividends each year (the amount varies naturally). He is full up for ISAs and PBs and is glad to make full use of the £2k zero rate band for GIA dividend income. HMRC administers my father's tax through PAYE only and does not ask him for a tax return. As holder of a POA for his affairs, I would like to understand if HMRC would obtain information about his GIA dividends from the investment platforms direct (AJ Bell in this case); or if not, ought I to manually notify HMRC each year of the actual amount of my father's dividends.

They no doubt have the information but with dividends it is still the individuals responsibility to notify HMRC if there is a liability.

If the amounts are relatively small, usually under £10k income is what matters, then HMRC will still try and deal with the liability via PAYE.

Collecting extra in year by a reduced tax code and then finalising things after the year ends either by issue of a P800 (tax overpaid or underpaid and can be collected via a future years tax code) of PA302 (Simple Assessment where tax due cannot be collected via a future years tax code).