Offshore Dis Fac.

[shawn_phade@yahoo.co]

Hello,

I have receieved both a bank letter and an HMRC letter for the ODF. My O/S account is funded by onshore savings only and this account just pays the UK mortgage (reason being when I leave the UK I will use this a/c so got it going from the start).

The account is only funded via BACS from onshore savings with enough to cover the mortgage payment. Subsequently the current account on 0.1% interest earnc 0.06p or 0.07p per month (£1 a year).

Do I need to bother doing anything - if I do get asked I am happy to show them my bank statements showing this.

Would they really be interested in £1 of interest?

Thanks

[CSTAX]

If you have received letters from your Bank and HMRC then this would indicate you do have to make a disclosure irrespective of the amounts involved, if there has been duties unpaid. You do not state how long the account has been opened, as HMRC have the power to assess back 20 years, but in most cases it will be 6 years. According to ICAEW, Tax Guide 3/07, HMRC state that you do not have to provide information beyond last 6 years where amounts are "trivial". There is no definition of the word trivial, but it is understood that HMRC intend that only very small amounts of income should be regarded as trivial. So a taxpayer who has had an account for years with say less than £100 per year could reasonably regard that amount as trivial and therefore need not disclose more than 6 years.
You may want to clarify this with the HMRC helpline 0845 302 1401
Caron
csmeaton@thompson-kimti.co.uk
www.cstax.co.uk ....under construction

[shawn_phade@yahoo.co]

Account has only been opened since June 2006. I dont do a tax return as I am salary staff and have no other funny business.

[CSTAX]

You only have to make a disclosure for all accounts open as at 5 April 2006.

[al_eebee]

It seems odd that you have received a letter from HMRC if the account was opened in June 2006 as I should have thought that account arose after the time the banks initially provided info to HMRC.

Suffice to say the interest earned in the future from the account needs to be returned to HMRC, but there is nothing that would fall within the ODF - registration for which closed today anyway