When you pay tax on savings, just spoken to HMRC

pecunianonolet

Ozzig said:

Based on their rules as advised by some of their advisors and the formal advice provided to MSE representatives I will be declaring the taxable interest based on what I believe to be correct amounts, those to which I had access. 

For 2022-23 it will be to my advantage so why shouldn't I?

Not everyone who fills in SA does it due to earning over £10k in interest, I certainly do not, probably why I am no expert in tax law.

The main reason I started this thread was inconsistent advice from HMRC, of which, some at the time contradicted the MSE advice.

I asked for confirmation/correction to the MSE savings advice, MSE Ben and the team asked again and got the same answer.

From my own experience, the banks declare all the interest earned in the same way, as mentioned previously, regardless of how the rules apply to the individual. 

I enquired with all my bond providers, and I got differing answers from each, but all declared interest in the same way.
In fact, NS&I declared 10p interest for an account I have no knowledge of, during the 2022-23 period, I only had premium bonds with them.

In my case poking the bear is declaring earned interest based on the bear's guidelines and some of the bear cubs' advice. 

If to your advantage all good, in my case it would be the opposite. My point was more about the inconsistency of theory and practise as eskbanker pointed out too.

I still go with "Stare decisis et non quieta movere"

Ozzig

eskbanker said:

Ozzig said:

The main reason I started this thread was inconsistent advice from HMRC, of which, some at the time contradicted the MSE advice.

I asked for confirmation/correction to the MSE savings advice, MSE Ben and the team asked again and got the same answer.

But nothing said by HMRC or MSE actually resolves that inconsistency between theory and practice, it just reiterates the theory?

Based on thread length, I'm not sure it'll ever be resolved. 

I'm relatively happy the MSE page is consistent with the rules as I'm confident they didn't just call the 03 number that I did to confirm their advice.
I'm relatively unhappy the HMRC advisors are still not consistent.

Ozzig

pecunianonolet said:

Ozzig said:

Based on their rules as advised by some of their advisors and the formal advice provided to MSE representatives I will be declaring the taxable interest based on what I believe to be correct amounts, those to which I had access. 

For 2022-23 it will be to my advantage so why shouldn't I?

Not everyone who fills in SA does it due to earning over £10k in interest, I certainly do not, probably why I am no expert in tax law.

The main reason I started this thread was inconsistent advice from HMRC, of which, some at the time contradicted the MSE advice.

I asked for confirmation/correction to the MSE savings advice, MSE Ben and the team asked again and got the same answer.

From my own experience, the banks declare all the interest earned in the same way, as mentioned previously, regardless of how the rules apply to the individual. 

I enquired with all my bond providers, and I got differing answers from each, but all declared interest in the same way.
In fact, NS&I declared 10p interest for an account I have no knowledge of, during the 2022-23 period, I only had premium bonds with them.

In my case poking the bear is declaring earned interest based on the bear's guidelines and some of the bear cubs' advice. 

If to your advantage all good, in my case it would be the opposite. My point was more about the inconsistency of theory and practise as eskbanker pointed out too.

I still go with "Stare decisis et non quieta movere"

If they agree with my letter, don't worry I'll not mention you  

Plus I'll try and avoid any future boat rocking  

masonic

As championed by another forum member, it is every taxpayer's right to submit a voluntary tax return. This would enable tax to be calculated on the correct figures.

Ocelot

Ozzig said:

eskbanker said:

Ozzig said:
As the MSE official stance is that tax is due when the fixed bond matures and the funds become accessible, to me, it would have made sense to mention it in the fixed rate bonds tax section as it would aid in selecting which new account to open.

Yes, absolutely the whole thing for existing savers who have all declared different things over different periods, with verbal and written advice contradicting each other on a regular basis, is a mess. 

In fact, while drafting my HMRC letter this week, wanting to make reference to the HMRC forum, I searched for maturity interest and the most recent replies are both at maturity, reinforcing the reply MSE Ben received. 

Personally I'm not seeing any evidence that anything has actually changed, so don't see a difference between what existing and new savers are faced with?

MSE are basically saying that HMRC always tell them the same thing, which is consistent with the theory in the manuals and so on, but not the actual practices of some providers - is there any evidence of a change in policy?

Prior to 2022-23 I didn't really pay any attention to savings/interest tax rules. From what I can tell though there hasn't been a change in policy.

Whenever I called HMRC about SA in the past, I never had more than a couple hundred in interest at most so it was never something to bother understanding 

Personally, due to the mixed messaging, I'm writing to them advising details of all the accounts I could not access during the tax period explaining, as per their forum advice (with links, on a letter )  that I am declaring only the interest received that I had access to. I will also include dates of maturity so there's a paper trail for both of us when I need to declare the other interests.

I was getting  taxed on interest prior to 22/23 (since 16/17), and, as I have posted many times, have been paying tax every year on inaccessible interest.

The general consensus is that this is wrong, but as HMRC don't know that you can't access the interest that gets reported annually to them, you need to tell them.

I agree that the issue is too complicated to mention on the show.

pecunianonolet

Does anyone know if there is a different way to request a list of reported interest rather than calling and waiting hours to get through?

Hoenir

pecunianonolet said:

Does anyone know if there is a different way to request a list of reported interest rather than calling and waiting hours to get through?

Keep a list yourself or suffer the wait on the phone. Alternatively employ somebody to do it for you. 

Ozzig

Hoenir said:

pecunianonolet said:

Does anyone know if there is a different way to request a list of reported interest rather than calling and waiting hours to get through?

Keep a list yourself or suffer the wait on the phone. Alternatively employ somebody to do it for you. 

The catch is your list may be different from the list they have. I know mine was.

pecunianonolet

Ozzig said:

Hoenir said:

pecunianonolet said:

Does anyone know if there is a different way to request a list of reported interest rather than calling and waiting hours to get through?

Keep a list yourself or suffer the wait on the phone. Alternatively employ somebody to do it for you. 

The catch is your list may be different from the list they have. I know mine was.

Exactly this is the reason and because I don't trust HMRC not 1 millimetre. They sent me a letter telling me about my new tax code and untaxed interest but it doesn't make any sense to my own record. 

london21

I prefer they send me the bill then I Pay.

In October paid the tax on interest and then in December got a letter about change to my tax code called them back that I will prefer for my tax code to remain the same and I pay the tax for next year instead than estimate and huge change in tax code.

Took a long time to get through in total over 2 hours on the phone as the phone cut off once and had to ring again.