£100 payment - Nationwide Fairer Share

ForumUser7

Really impressive news from Nationwide:

‘As a modern mutual we are able to share some of our profits with members who bank and who borrow or save with us. We will do this by making a one-off payment of £100 to those who qualify.’

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about-us/fairer-share/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/nationwide-pays-customers-profits-building-society-b2341676.html

https://www.nationwidemediacentre.co.uk/news/nationwide-building-society-launches-nationwide-fairer-share-to-return-greater-value-to-members

grumbler

In two of the three months of January 2023, February 2023 and March 2023, you must have received at least £500 into your current account.

Hopefully, this means £500 in total. If so, good that they had 5% cashback on supermarkets recently. Only this helped me to qualify.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Not sure why they are going to report this to HMRC as taxable "interest" when it clearly isn't interest!

Band7

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Not sure why they are going to report this to HMRC as taxable "interest" when it clearly isn't interest!

It will further help those who can make use of the PSA and/or the savings starter rate. Whilst I am not one of them, I find it entirely fair that they will won't have to pay tax on this minor windfall.

flaneurs_lobster

Thank goodness for their £50/month regular saver that I decided to keep running.

Bridlington1

Now this is the sort of message I want to be getting more often from the banks when I log into online banking:

pochisoldi

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Not sure why they are going to report this to HMRC as taxable "interest" when it clearly isn't interest!

The payment could either be (a) not taxable, (b) an "annual payment" (HMRC description, taxed at source), or (c)  interest (not taxed at source).

("annual payment" should be read as a periodic payment)

(a) doesn't apply because you get the payment regardless of what you did.
- an example of (a) is the £5 you get from Barclays Blue Rewards for having 2 direct debits - since the direct debits may or may not go out, and the payment is based on doing something rather than depositing money, it isn't (b) and it isn't (c)
(b) doesn't apply because the payment is not due to a legal obligation, and (i could be wrong here) it isn't considered to be a regular or periodic payment
(c) Does apply because (a) and (b) don't, and the payment is also dependent on money being held on deposit.

I honestly doubt that Nationwide would be able to structure this deal/feature/payment to be non-taxable.
(Unlike Halifax and Barclays whose reward schemes, in days gone by, were structured in such a way that they were "annual payments", with Halifax actually having to pay out £6.25 instead of £5 on their reward account, and Barclays leaving account holders with a tax liability on their Blue Rewards scheme).

The way I see it, it's potentially £100 of gross income that I never expected, and I'll take the net amount without looking in the gift horse's mouth. (I say potentially, as the show isn't over until the fat lady^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmoney lands in the account).

redux

flaneurs_lobster said:

Thank goodness for their £50/month regular saver that I decided to keep running.

I have that, however

I spent £500 in their supermarket cashback scheme, but not each month

I suspect I'll have some company

ForumUser7

pochisoldi said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Not sure why they are going to report this to HMRC as taxable "interest" when it clearly isn't interest!

...
(b) doesn't apply because the payment is not due to a legal obligation, and (i could be wrong here) it isn't considered to be a regular or periodic payment
...

Nationwide says 'The Society hopes as many members as possible become eligible for the reward in future years, and intends to make the payment annually, provided it would not be detrimental to the Society’s financial strength' in their press release - but as it is dependent on other factors such as eligibility criteria, I don't know if HMRC would class it as a regular/periodic payment

https://www.nationwidemediacentre.co.uk/news/nationwide-building-society-launches-nationwide-fairer-share-to-return-greater-value-to-members

Section62

ForumUser7 said:

Really impressive news from Nationwide:

Not so impressive for those members of a mutual building society who use Nationwide for the traditional role of having savings or a mortgage (only), and no current account.

Effectively this is just another reward for current account customers who have the luck to meet a complicated set of T&C's.

E.g. Everyone should note they won't get the money if they don't have a Nationwide current account on the day Nationwide decide to make the actual payment, even if they had one on the qualifying day.

Not what I'd consider a "mutual" approach.

pochisoldi

redux said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Thank goodness for their £50/month regular saver that I decided to keep running.

I have that, however

I spent £500 in their supermarket cashback scheme, but not each month

I suspect I'll have some company

I was giggling about that - the only reason I should qualify for the £100 is because I was chasing the 5% supermarket cashback. Otherwise I'd only have the habitual monthly £750 in (to meet the old loyalty requirements), £50 to the start to save account (=internal transfer), and £700 to return the rest of the money back to where it came from.