Zopa Certificate of Interest - excludes ISA interest?

Qyburn

Hi,
Can anyone by any chance confirm that Zopa's certificate of interest includes only taxable interest and not interest from ISA pots in the same account?

gravel_2

There was an issue immediately following the new tax year where Zopa issued interest certificates that did indeed include both non-ISA and ISA interest. This was an error and seemingly they have resolved it. If you look on your account today for a certificate then it should be accurate and only include non-ISA interest.

refluxer

The certificate I downloaded on 8th April just included the interest earned on my Smart Saver and not the Smart ISA.

RG2015

The thread on the link below gives more information, but I can confirm that my certificate initially included ISA interest but was corrected quite quickly.

I also got an email from Zopa advising me of this and that it had been corrected.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6519333/zopa-bizarre-annual-certificate-of-interest/p1

Qyburn

Thanks. At first I assumed it must exclude the ISA, but then again maybe tax isn't the only reason for wanting to know how much interest had been paid.

boingy

Just make a note to check that what HMRC have been told matches what you think you have earned in taxable interest.

Qyburn

boingy said:

Just make a note to check that what HMRC have been told matches what you think you have earned in taxable interest.

How do I check that?

eskbanker

Surely a certificate of interest is just summarising information that account holders have already had access to, so it should be straightforward to look at account statements and the like in order to validate what's totalled on the certificate?

Qyburn

eskbanker said:

Surely a certificate of interest is just summarising information that account holders have already had access to, so it should be straightforward to look at account statements and the like in order to validate what's totalled on the certificate?

Well yes, but I was hoping the single figure could be used instead of going through each monthly statement totting up the figure for each pot for each month. If I'm expected to do that anyway to check the accuracy of the certificate it doesn't really serve any purpose. 

eskbanker

Qyburn said:

eskbanker said:

Surely a certificate of interest is just summarising information that account holders have already had access to, so it should be straightforward to look at account statements and the like in order to validate what's totalled on the certificate?

Well yes, but I was hoping the single figure could be used instead of going through each monthly statement totting up the figure for each pot for each month. If I'm expected to do that anyway to check the accuracy of the certificate it doesn't really serve any purpose. 

Sure - I'm not familiar with Zopa's portal and how such data is made available, but yes, if you really wouldn't have any alternative to opening up 12 separate documents then that's not ideal.  Perhaps I was being swayed by coincidentally doing some simple data summarising of such monthly interest figures from various sources earlier on, when for each one it was just a case of extracting transaction data from within online banking, dumping into Excel and totalling, a process that was far from onerous....

'Trust but verify', as the old saying goes!

RG2015

Qyburn said:

boingy said:

Just make a note to check that what HMRC have been told matches what you think you have earned in taxable interest.

How do I check that?

If HMRC conclude that you have untaxed interest they will advise you of this and how to pay it (assuming you are not on self assessment).

This will generally occur around the October following the 5 April tax year end and will include the amount of interest you have earned during the year.

This is where you compare your figure with theirs.

PS HMRC actually say between June and October.

Income Tax for 6 April 2023 to 5 April 2024 will be calculated over the coming months, usually between June and October. Your Income Tax will be updated when that happens.

You will only receive a letter by post if you paid too much or too little tax. It will explain how to get your refund or pay any tax you owe.