Pensioners Tax on Investment Income

BillyNoMatesthe1st

I am in the position this year, for the first time in a long while, where my investments to boost my pension have yielded a return much greater than the £1000 allowance. Following my retirement in 2012 I continued to forward a Self Assessment each year. 
I cancelled my Self Assessment status in 2002 after 10 years of paying my accountant £170/annum to find that I owed nothing. In fact, when I cancelled my Self Assessment I had a rebate of £6!!.  So, it had cost me £1700 to have a rebate of £6.
The investments have now given us the returns that I had projected when saving for 30 years but this now gives rise to having to pay Income Tax.
Searching online some say wait for the Revenue to send you a form, some say the Revenue will contact you with your new Tax Code with adjustments to collect and some say contact the Revenue to re-apply for Self Assessment. 
I don't want to have to pay an accountant again for something I should now be able to do myself.
Any Tax Experts out there I would appreciate your advice.

wmb194

BillyNoMatesthe1st said:

I am in the position this year, for the first time in a long while, where my investments to boost my pension have yielded a return much greater than the £1000 allowance. Following my retirement in 2012 I continued to forward a Self Assessment each year. 
I cancelled my Self Assessment status in 2002 after 10 years of paying my accountant £170/annum to find that I owed nothing. In fact, when I cancelled my Self Assessment I had a rebate of £6!!.  So, it had cost me £1700 to have a rebate of £6.
The investments have now given us the returns that I had projected when saving for 30 years but this now gives rise to having to pay Income Tax.
Searching online some say wait for the Revenue to send you a form, some say the Revenue will contact you with your new Tax Code with adjustments to collect and some say contact the Revenue to re-apply for Self Assessment. 
I don't want to have to pay an accountant again for something I should now be able to do myself.
Any Tax Experts out there I would appreciate your advice.

What are the types of income? If it’s just interest on bank and building society savings accounts you can wait for HMRC to adjust your tax code. 

If there are dividends and interest earned via stockbrokers and savings platforms like Raisin then you’ll need to make a declaration of some sort to HMRC. 

Also if you’ve made capital gains above the £3k allowance or traded more than whatever the annual reporting limit is now (£50k?) whether or not you owe CGT.

molerat

You need to be clearer on what these "investments" actually are and what your other income for the year is.  SA is not needed for the majority of people with investment income and only a small minority of those that do need the services of an accountant.  (The vast majority of) Bank interest will be reported annually to HMRC who will recover any tax due by a variety of methods. Dividends can simply be reported via the on line tax account and HMRC will deal with it as necessary.

Middle_of_the_Road

If by investment returns, you're referring to interest received on cash deposits, you don't need to inform HMRC of interest any below 10k.

If you're referring to gains from stocks and shares, capital gains and dividends allowances apply.


Capital gains allowance 

dunstonh

Pensioners Tax on Investment Income

There is no tax specific to pensioners unless you were born before  6 April 1935.  Otherwise you are taxed the same as everyone else in the relevant home country.

Searching online some say wait for the Revenue to send you a form, some say the Revenue will contact you with your new Tax Code with adjustments to collect and some say contact the Revenue to re-apply for Self Assessment. 
I don't want to have to pay an accountant again for something I should now be able to do myself.
Any Tax Experts out there I would appreciate your advice.

If you owe tax but HMRC do not send you a self assessment return, then you are required to notify them.      With many things, they find out in the end but there is a lag and failure to notify within the defined timescales can lead to a penalty.

You say you have investments but you don't mention the tax wrappers you are using.   With each tax wrapper, the tax handling is different.  Ranging from no notifications needed through to more complicated calculations which may or may not need reporting.

ChesterDog

I'm not sure if you're really talking about investments producing a yield, or about straightforward savings.

Either way, for clarity, presumably these are not in an ISA or Sipp (which are outside the scope of taxation)?