UK Tax on US savings

[mymsman]

I am a UK citizen and resident but still have some US savings accounts from when I lived there. I need to declare the income from these to the HMRC and need a bit of help in how to handle each account type.

The accounts I have are:

• Regular bank savings accounts and fixed term Certificates of Deposit,
  I believe these are treated as regular savings interest
• Mutual funds and Shares,
  Am I correct in thinking the income is dividends taxed at the tax rate for gross dividends.
• Traditional iRA retirement savings
  These are tax free in the US until withdrawals are made when distributions are is taxed as income.
  Do they need to be declared to the HMRC whilst no withdrawals are being made?
  How are withdrawals declared to HMRC and is there any difference between lump sums and regular distributions?
• 401k pension plan,
  Are these treated the same as IRAs?

Thanks for any assistance

[mymsman]

Bump,

Can anyone advise me on any part of my question if not all of the parts or point me towards any other source of advice.

[AGoodman]

I can't help you with the pension arrangements but:

1. Yes, interest is interest.
2. Dividends from mutual funds and equities will usually be taxed as foreign dividends but beware that:

(a) if a fund generates a high proportion of its income as interest (say a bond fund) then the resulting divi will also be treated as interest; and
(b) I suspect the funds will be non-reporting status - this means that any gains you make on a sale are likely to be subject to income tax (as "income gains") rather than capital gains tax.

There is a list of reporting status funds here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ting-funds