One for Eric - small foreign dividends and self-assessment

[cirks]

My wife has some shares in an Australian company and receives approx £100 a year (via 2 dividends) with no with-holding tax paid. Is the exception granted by HMRC for online self-assessment people receiving under £300 a year from Santander's takeover of Abbey still apply? ie. can my wife enter the overseas dividends in the UK dividends section (as per instructions for Santander/Abbey a couple of years ago). Can't see/find up to date info on the HMRC SA website. Any guidance much appreciated! Tax office mentioned the foreign pages but as no with-holding tax is taken (and therefore no tax relief), isn't the only liability therefore UK one as per UK dividends?

[Eric Mc]

I was under the impresion that the special case of Abbey/Santander applied only to dividends from that bank.

I always put foreign dividends on the foreign pages.

If you were planning on submitting on-line, I'm not sure if the foreign pages are acceptable electronically.

If no foreign tax has been deducted at source on these dividends (I thought that the Aussies normally did this) then they will be taxable in full in the UK. At the moment, the UK style 10% Tax Credit does not apply to foreign untaxed dividends, but that is changing for tax year 2008/09.

[cirks]

Thanks Eric.
My wife managed to speak to someone helpful on the SA helpline this morning and they stated that IF my wife hadn't already submitted the online SA form, the Aus dividends could have been entered in the UK section. However, she will now need to complete the foreign pages and enter the dividend showing zero tax paid (these are franked Aus dividends) and the amount to be paid by her will be 10% of this amount.

Anyway, thanks for your speedy response.

[Eric Mc]

It shows how messy and unstaisfactory many elements of UK tax law actually is. In this case, the Revenue are more or less telling tax payers to complete their returns incorrectly (which is a criminal offence by the way).

[thewave]

Eric Mc said:

In this case, the Revenue are more or less telling tax payers to complete their returns incorrectly

Because there is no one at the revenue who knows what they're doing.

(who you can speak to)

[Deva Link]

I'm wondering how many people would declare £100 (especially from a foreign company)?

[Eric Mc]

I'm waiting for the results of the June and November 2007 "Declaration of Foreign Income" amnesty to be announced.
I think that a fair amount of doo doo will be hitting assorted fans at some time in 2008 following this massive disclosure requirement.