Do dividends under £500 have to be declared on a self-assessment

masonic

wmb194 said:

masonic said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

masonic said:

hallmark said:

Thanks, this is a good example of how IMO the HMRC guidance is often unclear:
https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-dividends/how-to-report-tax-on-dividends
You do not need to tell HMRC if your dividends are within the dividend allowance for the tax year.

The rest of the section after "If you do not send a Self Assessment tax return...", including the sentence after the two bullet points, would apply to those not filling out a tax return. Those filling out a tax return should follow the paragraph above it, starting "If you send a Self Assessment tax return...", and including the word "any".

It does seem clear to me.

Although I don't understand why that guidance for people not in Self Assessment says don't bother telling HMRC about dividends that are (all) within the dividend allowance.

That just seems to mean that some people in  several groups will be able to pay less tax than they should 😳

Married Couple's Allowance
High Income Child Benefit Charge
Winter Fuel Payment Charge
Tapered Personal Allowance
Marriage Allowance 

Investment firms now seem to be providing HMRC information on dividends and disposals (hence the several "HMRC nudge letter" threads). I'd assumed this is dealt with in the same way as bank interest.

My recollection is that those threads related to dividends and disposals made via foreign brokers e.g., there were a couple re De Giro (Dutch) and from investments held in the Isle of Man so these data will have been shared via the inter country reporting that’s now in place (except with the US?).

Perhaps someone knows better but I’m not convinced that British brokers supply any data - it’s not obvious from Googling anyway.

Some of them certainly did relate to foreign brokers, as I believe that was a specific campaign launched a couple of years ago. The latest is based on using Companies House accounts data: https://www.aatcomment.org.uk/audience/members/dont-fall-foul-of-hmrcs-dividends-sweep/

There was some debate on whether HMRC receives information from UK brokers and investment platforms here: https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=37866 OP's account suggests even if they are receiving the information, they aren't doing anything with it.

While I wasn't able to find any clear evidence of it, it would seem very unlikely to me that brokers and investment platforms are producing consolidated tax certificates for their customers, likely holding that information in electronic form, and HMRC isn't interested in having the information, especially in light of the efforts it has gone to with it's Connect system.

Small certificated holdings would probably present the biggest challenge as alluded to above by Dazed, so those probably do still slip under the radar.

wmb194

masonic said:

wmb194 said:

masonic said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

masonic said:

hallmark said:

Thanks, this is a good example of how IMO the HMRC guidance is often unclear:
https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-dividends/how-to-report-tax-on-dividends
You do not need to tell HMRC if your dividends are within the dividend allowance for the tax year.

The rest of the section after "If you do not send a Self Assessment tax return...", including the sentence after the two bullet points, would apply to those not filling out a tax return. Those filling out a tax return should follow the paragraph above it, starting "If you send a Self Assessment tax return...", and including the word "any".

It does seem clear to me.

Although I don't understand why that guidance for people not in Self Assessment says don't bother telling HMRC about dividends that are (all) within the dividend allowance.

That just seems to mean that some people in  several groups will be able to pay less tax than they should 😳

Married Couple's Allowance
High Income Child Benefit Charge
Winter Fuel Payment Charge
Tapered Personal Allowance
Marriage Allowance 

Investment firms now seem to be providing HMRC information on dividends and disposals (hence the several "HMRC nudge letter" threads). I'd assumed this is dealt with in the same way as bank interest.

My recollection is that those threads related to dividends and disposals made via foreign brokers e.g., there were a couple re De Giro (Dutch) and from investments held in the Isle of Man so these data will have been shared via the inter country reporting that’s now in place (except with the US?).

Perhaps someone knows better but I’m not convinced that British brokers supply any data - it’s not obvious from Googling anyway.

Some of them certainly did relate to foreign brokers, as I believe that was a specific campaign launched a couple of years ago. The latest is based on using Companies House accounts data: https://www.aatcomment.org.uk/audience/members/dont-fall-foul-of-hmrcs-dividends-sweep/

There was some debate on whether HMRC receives information from UK brokers and investment platforms here: https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=37866 OP's account suggests even if they are receiving the information, they aren't doing anything with it.

While I wasn't able to find any clear evidence of it, it would seem very unlikely to me that brokers and investment platforms are producing consolidated tax certificates for their customers, likely holding that information in electronic form, and HMRC isn't interested in having the information, especially in light of the efforts it has gone to with it's Connect system.

Small certificated holdings would probably present the biggest challenge as alluded to above by Dazed, so those probably do still slip under the radar.

HMRC’s long boasted about Connect’s capabilities but it’s often turned out - often by its own admission in its annual reports - to be wildly overblown and it when it has the data it requires a lot of human intervention to actually analyse it.

I don’t know how authoritative LITRG is but it seems to think, in 2024, that HMRC doesn’t receive dividend data.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/blog-post/taxation-dividend-income-have-hmrc-failed-keep

masonic

Well then, the system is more of a mess than I had thought. The BBSI returns system is flawed, but functional, and allows those on PAYE to avoid declaring interest income below £10k. Such a system could be extended to investment providers and dividends with very limited adjustment, using figures the providers are already compiling for their customers. That they haven't done this is an extremely poor show. It is perhaps the lowest hanging fruit.