Saving interests and self assessment.

qsk

For the first time, I'm asked to file a self assessment by HMRC for the tax year 2024/2025. I believe the reason is my total interests went over 10000 due to the high interest rate then.

I have gone through the form and as I am on PAYE, everything else looks straightforward apart from bank interests (I have no other income). The problem is that I didn't keep the records for interests and have lost track of the accounts I had, in particular, those Regular Savers, short term easy access accounts etc, which are all closed now.

Any advice? I seems to read before that you can ask HMRC for the interest record as reported by banks. Is this correct? If so, I'm thinking of asking HMRC for this list and check against the entries to make sure they are correct. Then use the number for the form. Is this workable?

Thanks.

Vitor

Yes, sometimes HMRC shows bank interest it has received from institutions. It is not guaranteed to be complete, but it is a good starting point.

HMRC guidance allows reasonable estimates where records are incomplete, provided you:

• make a genuine effort to reconstruct the data
• correct it later if better information becomes available

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6663089/saving-interests-and-self-assessment

You can indeed request a breakdown of interest from HMRC, but obviously wouldn't actually have anything to cross-check it against if you're missing records - submitting the same figures that they already have ought to minimise the risk of subsequent investigations but in self-assessing you're actually formally declaring the information to be correct, so it's not as simple as merely echoing what they'd been told by the institutions themselves.

The more rigorous approach would be to contact all the institutions with whom you held accounts and where you're missing interest details, and ask them for the information, in the guise of a subject access request if necessary.

What submission deadline have you been given?

qsk

Thanks for the advice. I was asked to submit in 3 months from date of their request (beginning of April).

The problem is some accounts, such as regular savers, are closed now, and I can't remember all the banks i had accounts with.

Bigwheels1111

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953918#Comment_81953918

it’s all about keeping accurate records.

A pain I know.

22 reg savers, 8 banks, 30 savings accounts. Fixed and easy access.

I’ve just spent 4 hours today getting the totals together, a bit harder this year as I received carers allowance,

PAYE wages and interest.

Your first steps are to look at your bank statements, should show the reg saver payouts, interest included.

Call those you think you had accounts with. Ask HMRC for a BBSI Statement.

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953918#Comment_81953918

Follow the money. You'll have some trail of money moving from the closed savings accounts and an account you still hold. Most banks will allow you to access transactions/statements going back several years. The interest will be the difference between money you contributed and money you received on closure.