Tax on savings help please
Tax on savings help please
Author
Discussion

1175Mk1

Original Poster:

547 posts

156 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
After some help/guidance please.

Background..

My sister (aged 46) came into some money due to a death in the family. She has invested the money in various savings accounts (around 5% & 6% spread over 6 or 7 accounts). Come July, the 1 year fixed rate for these accounts will be ending.

The interest accrued will amount to around £38K.

My question is, no doubt she will have to pay tax on the interest? How does this work.. do the companies such as Ford Finance take the money automatically or will she have to speak to HMRC? If it makes any difference, she gets a monthly pension from the deceased partner which is taxed, has one dependant, no mortgage and claims child benefit.

Obviously we would kike to get away with paying the least amount of tax possible so any guidance would be much appreciated.

halo34

2,890 posts

223 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
Self assessment I would expect and unless its in an ISA it would be taxed at the rate of income tax on top of the pension - may be wrong.


stuthemong

2,517 posts

241 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
Self assessment and she’ll have to declare.

At that quantum I’d be placing in gilts for a year or two to get low risk guaranteed 4.5% tax free returns, and depending on when to access it some equity exposure too.

Sorry for the loss but worth getting some advice and being sensible with the money. Most IFAs will want to get you paying them 1% and putting cash into them, see if you can find someone you just pay for advice.

LastPoster

3,165 posts

207 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
I don't think any general savings accounts have interest taxed at source any more and it's possible she may be straying into 40% tax as well

Based on the numbers you have quoted, bearing in mind the income from other sources as well she may have to pay back the child benefit via High Income Child Benefit Charge.

Bearing in mind her circumstances (I know exactly how her situation feels frown ) then it sounds like some professional advice wouldn't go amiss and it's not often I would say that.

Abc321

1,034 posts

119 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
Self Assessment is correct.

Taxed at relevant rates after pension added on, usual state of affairs in that Personal Allowance and then 20/40/45% rates depending on where you sit.

She will need to register for Self Assessment also.

grumbas

1,106 posts

215 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
Abc321 said:
Self Assessment is correct.

Taxed at relevant rates after pension added on, usual state of affairs in that Personal Allowance and then 20/40/45% rates depending on where you sit.

She will need to register for Self Assessment also.
This is the gist of it. There's a £1k personal allowance for interest, then it'll be taxed at the relevant rates.

I'd find a local independent tax advisor who can guide through self assessment.

Eric Mc

124,991 posts

289 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
One of the upshots of the introduction of the £1,000 interest income tax threshold is that banks and building societies were no longer required to deduct tax at 20% from interest credited into the bank account.

This means that, once the interest exceeds the £1,000 threshold, the only way the tax payer can physically declare and pay the tax due on the interest is by registering for Self Assessment.

This was an unintended consequence of a rather dumb move by the Chancellor.

1175Mk1

Original Poster:

547 posts

156 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
Many thanks for the replies.

Sounds like a self assessment form needs to be completed.

gca117

34 posts

184 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
Interestingly I thought I was going to need to complete a Self Assessment, for a much smaller breach of the £500 threshold for Higher Rate tax payers. However, HMRC contacted me directly and said they had been informed of my interest and were adjusting my Tax Code to recover.

PostHeads123

1,180 posts

159 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
gca117 said:
Interestingly I thought I was going to need to complete a Self Assessment, for a much smaller breach of the £500 threshold for Higher Rate tax payers. However, HMRC contacted me directly and said they had been informed of my interest and were adjusting my Tax Code to recover.

They don't deduct at source any more but the banks etc do feed the info to hmrc.

a311

6,231 posts

201 months

Monday 22nd January 2024
quotequote all
gca117 said:
Interestingly I thought I was going to need to complete a Self Assessment, for a much smaller breach of the £500 threshold for Higher Rate tax payers. However, HMRC contacted me directly and said they had been informed of my interest and were adjusting my Tax Code to recover.
Yup same happened to me. I wrongly assumed it was 1k personal allowance but I'm a higher rate tax payer so was my own daft fault. Truth is it hadn't been a problem for over a decade as 1. I didn't have much in the way of savings and 2. The interest rate was so minuscule. I'm sure the letter said I could pay in a lump sum but unless instructed otherwise would deduct via tax code change.

ISA's have become relevant again though.

Eric Mc

124,991 posts

289 months

Tuesday 23rd January 2024
quotequote all
PostHeads123 said:
gca117 said:
Interestingly I thought I was going to need to complete a Self Assessment, for a much smaller breach of the £500 threshold for Higher Rate tax payers. However, HMRC contacted me directly and said they had been informed of my interest and were adjusting my Tax Code to recover.

They don't deduct at source any more but the banks etc do feed the info to hmrc.
As long as they do this you have a chance of paying the right tax. If they FAIL to do this (and HMRC have
a long history of screwing up tax codes) YOU will be held responsible for failing to pay the right tax on your interest.

Glosphil

4,798 posts

258 months

Tuesday 23rd January 2024
quotequote all
There is an additional allowance for interest before tax for low earners. The difference between the usual earnings allowance (£12, 750?) & £16,250 (?) can set against interest before tax is applied.

N.B. Actual amounts close but may not be correct.

Eric Mc

124,991 posts

289 months

Tuesday 23rd January 2024
quotequote all
Glosphil said:
There is an additional allowance for interest before tax for low earners. The difference between the usual earnings allowance (£12, 750?) & £16,250 (?) can set against interest before tax is applied.

N.B. Actual amounts close but may not be correct.
The current Personal Tax Allowance (PTA) is £12,570.

For lower earners, there has to be an ordered set-off of allowances. Basically, PTA is offset first followed by the various additional "income type" based allowances.

It can make for tricky calculations and actually caused technical problems for HMRC's software when the additional interest, dividend and savings allowances were first introduced a few years ago.