Self Assessment: Savings Interest Statements for closed accounts.

dosh37

jak22 said:

Ideally each bank would generate a certificate of interest for all accounts that have been opened in the year, either shortly after April 5 or on account closure. Many do, but not all, and some need for them to be requested - this should surely be a regulation like needing to quote an AER or the ISA rules. 

It's also worth keeping the monthly statements, but it's not uncommon for these to be unavailable for closed accounts. If possible download a statement just before closing, but this likely won't include any closing interest.

When it's a mobile app only bank it is slightly trickier to transfer PDF statements into storage.

The best way is to keep a spreadsheet of monthly interest received to provide the total figure for the tax year - the other documents are then just supporting evidence.

And what happens if you have a computer failure / disk crash?

My preference would be for all savings organisations to provide an annual statement through the post that includes all transactions, including interest payments, for all accounts, both open and closed at the end of each tax year. This is what The Coventry BS does. It saves a lot of time and effort and guards againts accounting errors.

ColdIron

dosh37 said:

jak22 said:

Ideally each bank would generate a certificate of interest for all accounts that have been opened in the year, either shortly after April 5 or on account closure. Many do, but not all, and some need for them to be requested - this should surely be a regulation like needing to quote an AER or the ISA rules. 

It's also worth keeping the monthly statements, but it's not uncommon for these to be unavailable for closed accounts. If possible download a statement just before closing, but this likely won't include any closing interest.

When it's a mobile app only bank it is slightly trickier to transfer PDF statements into storage.

The best way is to keep a spreadsheet of monthly interest received to provide the total figure for the tax year - the other documents are then just supporting evidence.

My preference would be for all savings organisations to provide an annual statement through the post that includes all transactions

I don't think my postie could cope with some of my accounts

masonic

dosh37 said:

jak22 said:

Ideally each bank would generate a certificate of interest for all accounts that have been opened in the year, either shortly after April 5 or on account closure. Many do, but not all, and some need for them to be requested - this should surely be a regulation like needing to quote an AER or the ISA rules. 

It's also worth keeping the monthly statements, but it's not uncommon for these to be unavailable for closed accounts. If possible download a statement just before closing, but this likely won't include any closing interest.

When it's a mobile app only bank it is slightly trickier to transfer PDF statements into storage.

The best way is to keep a spreadsheet of monthly interest received to provide the total figure for the tax year - the other documents are then just supporting evidence.

And what happens if you have a computer failure / disk crash?

My preference would be for all savings organisations to provide an annual statement through the post that includes all transactions, including interest payments, for all accounts, both open and closed at the end of each tax year. This is what The Coventry BS does. It saves a lot of time and effort and guards againts accounting errors.

A paper document puts you in a more vulnerable position than a sensibly backed up electronic document. What if you have a fire or get flooded? Or more likely, the document gets lost in the post, intercepted, or misplaced after being delivered?

My preference is not to have any documents sent to me through the post.

jak22

dosh37 said:

jak22 said:

Ideally each bank would generate a certificate of interest for all accounts that have been opened in the year, either shortly after April 5 or on account closure. Many do, but not all, and some need for them to be requested - this should surely be a regulation like needing to quote an AER or the ISA rules. 

It's also worth keeping the monthly statements, but it's not uncommon for these to be unavailable for closed accounts. If possible download a statement just before closing, but this likely won't include any closing interest.

When it's a mobile app only bank it is slightly trickier to transfer PDF statements into storage.

The best way is to keep a spreadsheet of monthly interest received to provide the total figure for the tax year - the other documents are then just supporting evidence.

And what happens if you have a computer failure / disk crash?

My preference would be for all savings organisations to provide an annual statement through the post that includes all transactions, including interest payments, for all accounts, both open and closed at the end of each tax year. This is what The Coventry BS does. It saves a lot of time and effort and guards againts accounting errors.

This is mainly about the availability of the information rather than the media, but although some banks still give the option for paper statements, to get the best rates these days it's best to be ready to handle electronic statements.

Conveniently there's a thread about that https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6519681/certificate-of-interest-storage/p1, and regarding disk crashes "It's wise to have three copies of any important docs, photos, etc, using at least 2 different methods and locations, such as a backup drive or cloud."

poseidon1

masonic said:

dosh37 said:

jak22 said:

Ideally each bank would generate a certificate of interest for all accounts that have been opened in the year, either shortly after April 5 or on account closure. Many do, but not all, and some need for them to be requested - this should surely be a regulation like needing to quote an AER or the ISA rules. 

It's also worth keeping the monthly statements, but it's not uncommon for these to be unavailable for closed accounts. If possible download a statement just before closing, but this likely won't include any closing interest.

When it's a mobile app only bank it is slightly trickier to transfer PDF statements into storage.

The best way is to keep a spreadsheet of monthly interest received to provide the total figure for the tax year - the other documents are then just supporting evidence.

And what happens if you have a computer failure / disk crash?

My preference would be for all savings organisations to provide an annual statement through the post that includes all transactions, including interest payments, for all accounts, both open and closed at the end of each tax year. This is what The Coventry BS does. It saves a lot of time and effort and guards againts accounting errors.

A paper document puts you in a more vulnerable position than a sensibly backed up electronic document. What if you have a fire or get flooded? Or more likely, the document gets lost in the post, intercepted, or misplaced after being delivered?

My preference is not to have any documents sent to me through the post.

I am with you with regard to going paperless. A number of years back my area was hit with a spate of mail being stolen  by temporary postmen with theives using bank/credit card statements, and other personal data to perpetrate identity fraud. 

As a result I switched off all paper based financial and utility statements, and am now virtually paperless in this regard.

To deal with my self assessment returns, I download year end interest certificates for all savings accounts as they arise ( 8 for 2023/24) , save on my hard drive of the laptop in a dedicated folder, and periodically backup the drive on an external drive for good measure. 

 Thus far all the saving institutions I utilise ( past and present)  provide certificates and when switching to better rates,  i avoid being locked out of accounts by retaining small outstanding balances. It's not rocket science.

GeoffTF

dosh37 said:

And what happens if you have a computer failure / disk crash?

Keep a minimum of three copies. One on your computer. A second on an external drive. A third on the cloud (e.g. Google Drive or OneDrive).

Shylock_249

dosh37 said:

eskbanker said:

dosh37 said:

In my view, it should be up to HMRC to tell us what we owe.

If you don't keep a record yourself you have no way of challenging the figures they provide.  I've started keeping meticulous records of interest received expecting to be moved to SA  and as such I was able to point out to HMRC that the figure they had given for interest was incorrect.  In effect they had charged my wife approx £40 too much.

inflationbuster

In future make a spreadsheet of all accounts, check box if you've got a statement and the amount of interest received.  I imagine quite a few have numerous bank accounts to take advantage of higher savings rates.

slinger2

Does anyone know who reports to the HMRC for the "one-stop shops" like Raisin. Is it Raisin or the banks they use?

Swipe

slinger2 said:

Does anyone know who reports to the HMRC for the "one-stop shops" like Raisin. It is Raisin or the banks they use?

Don't quote me on it, but I'm sure I've read here that those accounts under a third party holding such as Raisin never get reported to HMRC.