Reconciling savings interest amount

poppystar

Driving myself nuts as there is a discrepancy between what HMRC claims was my savings interest for last year (22/23) and what my trusty spreadsheet says.  It’s not a huge amount but seems to be too much whatever rounding system they might employ. I’ve checked that all the end year/start year interest has gone into the correct year on my records with no problems found. I’d just sit back but I’m like a dog with a bone over such things. I would be happy to just let it be in some ways - it is in my favour effectively - but worry about it catching up with me when I move into self assessment life for 23/24 and beyond.

Is a discrepancy of some sorts usual or do others get it accurate to the nearest £? Is trying to get a list out of HMRC for the breakdown of the interest the only way forward? Do they provide that easily? 

mebu60

Have you got any fixed rate >1 year accounts?

Others have obtained HMRC breakdown. Don't know degree of difficulty involved. Or if it's available online. 

cmundo

I’ve had this problem in past a few times. Have had to phone up and go through a reconciliation over phone, account by account.  In all cases they gave duplicated one or more bank accounts.  They’ve rectified over phone but considering it’s an organisation responsible for financial reporting they are pretty useless. 

Albermarle

mebu60 said:

Have you got any fixed rate >1 year accounts?

Others have obtained HMRC breakdown. Don't know degree of difficulty involved. Or if it's available online. 

It is not available on line, you have to contact them and they will send it to you.
Not sure is you can do this via webchat, or you have to hang on for a real person.

RedImp_2

Are you using the figures provided from your bank’s etc in their year end tax statement rather than your own monthly figures etc.

Slinky

Are you accounting for interest in the year you actually have access to it? 

Interest added to an account during a fixed term should be declared when you actually get access to it, not when the bank credit it to the account. If you can't get your hands on the interest, it's not declarable until the year in which you can.

Runner_Duck

I’ve just gone through this particular nightmare as I tried to finalise the estate accounts for my late mother.  On the face of it the numbers were not that different but previously I could balance it to within the odd GBP.  You do need to phone and speak to a human. When I did this and explained the issue, they went through the figures for untaxed interest that they had.  That’s where the fun started, because some accounts had been closed during the 2021 – 22 tax year with interest declared and tax paid, but as they’d not received any figures for those accounts for  the 2022-23 year, they just carried forward the same values from 21-22.  They also had not recorded any values for 4 other accounts.  Basically, I’ve spent hours on the phone to various banks and building societies trying to straighten this out and I’ve just sent HMRC a letter with all the correct information.  Hopefully that will generate a small tax rebate.

BooJewels

I've been thinking about this myself today too.  I received a maturity statement from NS&I for a Guaranteed Income Bond that matured on 9th Feb and I auto-renewed into a new one.  It has a statement of all transactions for the 'final year' (it was a 1 year product) starting on 9th May - with 10 interest payments listed.  It states below this the interest earned in the 23/24 tax year as the total of those 10 payments. 

I already included the March interest payment on my 22/23 return and as Aprils was paid on 9th April, I've already included it in my list ready for my 23/24 figures.  So if NS&I report their number to HMRC, we're about £99 wrong from the outset.  It doesn't fill me with great confidence that it can possibly reconcile going forwards - when I have many accounts that pay monthly interest.   I record every penny I actually receive between 6th April to the next 5th April - but HMRC always seem able to find new ways to make things more complicated than they need to be. I've been trying to sort my NI for over 3 years.

poppystar

mebu60 said:

Have you got any fixed rate >1 year accounts?

Others have obtained HMRC breakdown. Don't know degree of difficulty involved. Or if it's available online. 

Ah, that’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of that. I haven’t any long term fixes although some accounts do have maturity dates longer than a year from account opening. My spreadsheet though only has interest that I know I’ve earned to date. Or is it that some institutions might not have sent HMRC details eventhough I can see the interest in the account? 

poppystar

BooJewels said:

I've been thinking about this myself today too.  I received a maturity statement from NS&I for a Guaranteed Income Bond that matured on 9th Feb and I auto-renewed into a new one.  It has a statement of all transactions for the 'final year' (it was a 1 year product) starting on 9th May - with 10 interest payments listed.  It states below this the interest earned in the 23/24 tax year as the total of those 10 payments. 

I already included the March interest payment on my 22/23 return and as Aprils was paid on 9th April, I've already included it in my list ready for my 23/24 figures.  So if NS&I report their number to HMRC, we're about £99 wrong from the outset.  It doesn't fill me with great confidence that it can possibly reconcile going forwards - when I have many accounts that pay monthly interest.   I record every penny I actually receive between 6th April to the next 5th April - but HMRC always seem able to find new ways to make things more complicated than they need to be. I've been trying to sort my NI for over 3 years.

That could be a factor as mine matured on 2 Feb. On my spreadsheet I’ve also allocated the interest to the year in which it arrived in the nominated account like you have. So I would have included the first month - and probably the second too as it would have arrived before 6th April - in 22/23. I mean the money had actually been given to me by then so that seemed in the spirit of it counting in the year you had access! Will go check the statement which is lurking in the online documents. 

BooJewels

My own rationale has been - "on what date could I actually spend it?" and enter it in the appropriate month and tax year accordingly.