PSA: Check your HMRC Tax Calculations if you have a Zopa Cash ISA

palemist

My Experience: HMRC said I owed £308 due to untaxed savings interest. I knew this was wrong as my savings are in a Cash ISA. After investigating, HMRC acknowledged a major flaw: Zopa did not correctly report the account as an ISA, so HMRC treated it as a taxable account.

The Real Issue: HMRC's notices are vague. They don't tell you which bank caused the problem, making it a guessing game. The agent I spoke to agreed this is ridiculous and leads to people paying bills they don't owe out of confusion.

If this happens to you:

1. Do not pay it immediately.

2. Call HMRC and challenge it.

3. Tell them the interest is from your Zopa CASH ISA.

Let's make sure no one gets charged for this administrative failure.

flaneurs_lobster

For 2024/25?

Any idea if this was an isolated incident or if this will apply to all Zopa Cash ISA reporting to HMRC for the last financial year?

wmb194

flaneurs_lobster said:

For 2024/25?

Any idea if this was an isolated incident or if this will apply to all Zopa Cash ISA reporting to HMRC for the last financial year?

In a recent thread a poster said they’d spoken to Zopa about this and Zopa said it was going to correct the mistake with HMRC so you’d hope it won’t happen again.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6638937/zopa-mistake#latest

palemist

I believe it's from the last financial year as I transferred in my cash ISA from Zopa to Trading 212 in December of 2024, it's also specific to Zopa from what the agent said on the phone. 

refluxer

For those who don't keep a close eye on on their interest/tax situation and get unpaid tax on interest recouped with adjustments to their tax code, I would have thought it was likely that many wouldn't notice or find out.

If this isn't just an isolated incident, then the minimum I would expect Zopa to do would be to contact those affected to explain the error.
 
Ideally, they would also re-issue amended interest summaries to HMRC if that was possible at this late stage - I guess it may be too late for this, though.

GrubbyGirl_2

This has happened with Zopa before (23/24) and the reason why I transferred my ISA away.  Seems like I made the right decision