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Self Assessment: Savings Interest Statements for closed accounts.

Because of frequent interest rate changes, I ended up with savings accounts with a number of different organisations over the last tax year. Many of these acounts are now closed.

In some cases I am no longer able to login to the website to obtain interest statements.
One example being Secure Trust Bank.
In other cases I can login but can only see the details for accounts that are currently open.
An example here is Post Office Savings.
Years ago savings organisations would send a complete statement through the post at the end of the tax year. I believe The Coventry BS still does this.
How are we expected to complete a Self Assessement Tax Return if we are unable to obtain the necessary information?
It can be extremely difficult to contact online savings organisations if you are no longer able to login.


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Comments

  • Brunokid
    Brunokid Posts: 59 Forumite
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    Could you not get your interest payments from your statements?
  • izawa
    izawa Posts: 161 Forumite
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    i wish hmrc had option to see interest received by individual on the online account. this is so bad, other countries tax authorities allow a person to see what has banks reported
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  • dosh37
    dosh37 Posts: 429 Forumite
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    Brunokid said:
    Could you not get your interest payments from your statements?

    That's the whole point I was trying to make in my original post!
    In many cases, if you no longer have any remaining open accounts you cannot login to the website to obtain a statement.
    In other cases you can login but you cannot obtain statements for closed accounts (unless they provide a mechanism to request one via a secure message).
  • dosh37
    dosh37 Posts: 429 Forumite
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    izawa said:
    i wish hmrc had option to see interest received by individual on the online account. this is so bad, other countries tax authorities allow a person to see what has banks reported

    I agree.
    I suspect that HMRC are not informed of all interest payments. After all, when you open a savings account, you are not usually required to enter your National Insurance Number. All they have to keep track of the account owner is name and address. What happens when someone moves? What if the address if false?

  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 35,345 Forumite
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    dosh37 said:
    Years ago savings organisations would send a complete statement through the post at the end of the tax year. I believe The Coventry BS still does this.
    Up to 2016, there was an obligation to provide tax certificates but that was because the institutions were deducting tax from the interest.

    dosh37 said:
    How are we expected to complete a Self Assessement Tax Return if we are unable to obtain the necessary information?
    You're expected to keep records yourself.

    If you fail to do so then you are dependent on contacting the institutions or working out interest yourself from bank statements for money to/from savings accounts.
  • Swipe
    Swipe Posts: 5,477 Forumite
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    edited 9 April 2024 pm30 3:12PM
    That's why I don't close down old accounts until I've done my SA.
  • dosh37 said:
    izawa said:
    i wish hmrc had option to see interest received by individual on the online account. this is so bad, other countries tax authorities allow a person to see what has banks reported

    I agree.
    I suspect that HMRC are not informed of all interest payments. After all, when you open a savings account, you are not usually required to enter your National Insurance Number. All they have to keep track of the account owner is name and address. What happens when someone moves? What if the address if false?

    Yes I've often wondered this. Surely HMRC can only ever form an estimate. NI number is needed for ISAs but not normal savings. So they could only tie it up based on name and address (maybe dob). And what about joint accounts?
  • friolento
    friolento Posts: 1,893 Forumite
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    dosh37 said:
    izawa said:
    i wish hmrc had option to see interest received by individual on the online account. this is so bad, other countries tax authorities allow a person to see what has banks reported

    I agree.
    I suspect that HMRC are not informed of all interest payments. After all, when you open a savings account, you are not usually required to enter your National Insurance Number. All they have to keep track of the account owner is name and address. What happens when someone moves? What if the address if false?

    I suspect you suspect incorrectly. A NINO makes it easier for HMRC to identify who the interest is for but I would expect they deploy technology to still identify the correct account holder in most cases, even if they have moved. Using a false address on a savings account, or any account, is calling for trouble.

  • izawa said:
    i wish hmrc had option to see interest received by individual on the online account. this is so bad, other countries tax authorities allow a person to see what has banks reported
    Yes, I'd like to see this too.  You can, however phone them and ask for a print out of the details provided to them by banks etc.

    I've had mixed responses when phoning them.  Waiting on the phone for an hour to get through, speak to a HMRC rep and request print outs, some times I've spoken to helpful reps who are able to arrange for print outs to be sent to my home address.  Other times I've spoken to reps who are working from home and are unable to print off and send the details.

    One thing I noticed on the print outs, I had 18 lines of details, 11 were from accounts which I'd closed in the previous financial year. 7 were correct for the current financial year, the 11 showed estimates.

    The rep said that banks had until 30 June to notify HMRC of interests paid but when I phoned them they said that banks had been given an extension.

    When I got the list I phoned them back (talk about pulling teeth) and went through each entry line by line. Eventually after 3 phone calls we both agreed on the correct figure, this figure was correctly shown on my tax notification letter.

    All my taxable accounts are held in joint names so my wife's bank interest is exactly the same as mine, so you might think.

    When we received our tax code notification showing how much interest had been paid my wife's was different from mine and they had inflated her figure by an estimate - more phone calls explaining that THEY had included an estimate payment and NOT just the actuals.

    One thing which clouds the process is that if one opens a 1 year fixed rate savings account which pays interests in one financial year (FY) on termination the saver ellects to open a new account most banks/bs allocate a new account number.  So the actual interest from the first FY is notified and taken into account by HMRC they still retain that detail on their system. Then in the next FY the new account pays interest which is notified to HMRC, HMRC still take into account the first FY's interest as an estimate and the second FY as an actual.  I believe that at the end of the year, after banks have notified HMRC HMRC create our tax letters telling us how much interest we have received.  Now, I'd say that they should only use the actual figures, but as in the case of my wife they had mistakenly used the acuals and one spurious estimate. As a result HMRC overcharged her account by approx £40.

    Yes it would be good to be able to view the details online.
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  • dosh37
    dosh37 Posts: 429 Forumite
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    eskbanker said:
    dosh37 said:
    Years ago savings organisations would send a complete statement through the post at the end of the tax year. I believe The Coventry BS still does this.
    Up to 2016, there was an obligation to provide tax certificates but that was because the institutions were deducting tax from the interest.

    dosh37 said:
    How are we expected to complete a Self Assessement Tax Return if we are unable to obtain the necessary information?
    You're expected to keep records yourself.

    If you fail to do so then you are dependent on contacting the institutions or working out interest yourself from bank statements for money to/from savings accounts.

    When an account is closed, the amount transferred into your bank shows the final amount. It does not show separate figures for interest. It gets more complicated if some of the interest applies to an earlier tax year i.e. the interest was left in the account to be compounded rather than being withdrawn. Unless it's something like a fixed term bond over more than one year, tax is payable when interest becomes available to be be withdrawn, not when you decide to draw it.

    If you have dozens of accounts, many of which have been closed, then contacting every savings organisation would take days or weeks and leave you a jibbering wreck. Have you ever tried to get through to one of these organisations by phone? After listening to recorded messages telling you that you can do everything online followed by the inevitable 'our phone lines are unusually busy, blah blah' then 20 minutes listening to 'music?' most people give up.


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