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

aJayMitchell

This has now affected both my wife and I over the last two months - so it appears to be an ongoing issue, and potentially costing taxpayers who aren't keeping tracks of these things hundreds of pounds each!

FishInGlass

It is by no means an universal problem. I though HMRC had incorrectly calculated my savings income so I contacted them and they posted me a full breakdown. On detailed inspection I realised the the error was my miscalculation. I had a Zopa cash ISA which was open from 6th April 2024 to August 2025. None of the interest generated appeared in the list they supplied. However if you are getting a discrepancy there is no harm in checking.

_JasonR

I also had the same problem with my Zopa ISA being taxed. After realising it had happened, my partner checked their account, and found the same had happened to them. It was only because of another issue that  looked into the interest breakdown that HMRC were using for me, otherwise, I (and we) would never have known.
This seems like a very serious issue that needs attention.

aJayMitchell

For info, I raised a complaint with Zopa via their online chat a few days ago. They've flagged that a 'small number of customers' have been affected.

They say that they've provided HMRC the correct information on 7th October, but it appears HMRC have not fully processed this yet. They accept that they haven't informed customers and that the first customers are finding out about the issue is via HMRC.

Interestingly, they've offered £150 in compensation - so if you've had this issue, it's worth raising a complaint.

I won't be accepting until I can have it confirmed that the issue has been fully resolved.

Gresteg

I was also advised by HMRC they where resolving this issue a couple of weeks ago and not to worry as they had until April to fix it.
Today I received a letter from them with an amended tax code from November 25. Therefore my December pay will be reduced due to this error by Zopa. Looks like they haven’t resolved it.
Interestingly Zopa haven’t yet told me about the issue of sending HMRC the wrong information.

Shambles.