Tax Return - calculating interested

I'm no accountant by any means but I've just finished dealing with my father's tax affairs and, having asked exactly the same question myself, the answer I received from the tax office was that it is purely down to which tax year the interest payment was actually made in, not which period it relates to.

I do hope this question isn't required for an 03/04 tax return - you'd be cutting it very fine if it is.

HtH RM

Banks will provide a letter showing interest for the tax year if you ask them. Just ring them up.

John

The latter.

If Nationwide makes a single interest payment each year you allocate the WHOLE of that payment to the tax year in which the payment was added to your account. i.e. you ignore the fact that it relates to an interest period which straddles two tax years.

At least, that's what the tax office told me to do.

RM

They do (see below). Sure you haven't thrown them away as irrelevant? :-)

If there is only a single annual interest payment, life is easy. But if it's credited every month, say, which seems to be more normal, then a calendar-year summary is pretty unhelpful, since you'd need to split and splice from two consecutive summaries to get the figures relating to the tax year they straddle. You might as well collate the information from the monthly statements.

My banks have always supplied me -entirely separately from any statements as such- with a chit for each account, called "Certificate of Deduction of Income Tax" giving the totals for gross interest, tax deducted, and actual amount received. There's a note on it saying "This certificate is issued for the purpose of section 352 ICTA 1988.".

In practice, these chits take their time coming, and I tend to have completed my TR before they arrive (having gleaned the info from the monthly statements).

Just contacted the tax office and because the interest paid was only about

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Jon said

The latter, assuming interest was paid annually.

The real pain is when interest is paid monthly, but the bank gives only an annual statement, and that statement doesn't match the tax year. If that is your case, then ding the bank for a proper tax-year statement on interest paid and tax deducted.

In message , GSV Three Minds in a Can writes

These days the bank should be sending a specific fiscal year 'tax statement' after the end of the tax year. I think this is now a requirement for the bank or b/soc.

Nationwide generally pay interest once a year in December, so the interest you receive in December goes in the return for the relevant tax year.