Barclays Blue Rewards + income tax

MeMe2023

Dear All,

I would really appreciate your advice regarding the Barclays Blue Rewards scheme. While, on the Barclays website, it clearly says that rewards received after Nov 2016 are not considered taxable income, on the HMRC community forum, it says that the rewards are not taxable at source but are still taxable income.

I've posted the following query on the HMRC forum as well but have not heard back from them. I was wondering if you could comment on this: 

From what I've been able to gather based on your response above, the £5/month reward given to Barclays Blue Rewards customers would be considered taxable income (under the 'other income' category) even though it says on the Barclays website that it isn't. Please can you clarify if this would count as taxable income if the account is held for less than 12 months? And would these rewards be exempt from taxation if the total 'other'/ miscellaneous income earned (including the rewards) is under £1000 in any tax year?

Many thanks in advance for your reply.

ColdIron

A long time ago they used to be taxable but Barclays changed the terms of the reward so they no longer are

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2016/11/barclays-blue-rewards-are-now-tax-free---act-now-to-get-a-free-55-in-a-year/

MeMe2023

Thank you, ColdIron. As I'm new, I'm not allowed to post a link here, but the HMRC admin's response is less than a year old and they're saying that it's still taxable, just not taxable at source.

wmb194

MeMe2023 said:

Dear All,

I would really appreciate your advice regarding the Barclays Blue Rewards scheme. While, on the Barclays website, it clearly says that rewards received after Nov 2016 are not considered taxable income, on the HMRC community forum, it says that the rewards are not taxable at source but are still taxable income.

I've posted the following query on the HMRC forum as well but have not heard back from them. I was wondering if you could comment on this: 

From what I've been able to gather based on your response above, the £5/month reward given to Barclays Blue Rewards customers would be considered taxable income (under the 'other income' category) even though it says on the Barclays website that it isn't. Please can you clarify if this would count as taxable income if the account is held for less than 12 months? And would these rewards be exempt from taxation if the total 'other'/ miscellaneous income earned (including the rewards) is under £1000 in any tax year?

Many thanks in advance for your reply.

These days it’s classed as cashback. Barclays explains it on its website:



https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/additional-blue-rewards-terms-conditions/#:~:text=Tax%20treatment%20of%20Barclays%20Blue%20Rewards&text=With%20the%20exception%20of%20interest,subject%20to%20UK%20income%20tax.

wmb194

MeMe2023 said:

Thank you, ColdIron. As I'm new, I'm not allowed to post a link here, but the HMRC admin's response is less than a year old and they're saying that it's still taxable, just not taxable at source.

They’re wrong, see my post above.

MeMe2023

Thank you very much!