user888

Dear HMRC Admins, Thanks for the reply and for bearing with a further question (first time to file self-assessment and a bit confused). Grateful if you could help in clarifying whether the same "round down at all stages" rule is to be applied to the calculation of income in GBP (bank savings interest, both overseas and in the UK) without currency conversion? Say, if the monthly interest income in one bank account is GBP 1.99 each month (i.e. GPB1.99 paid 12 times in total in the tax year), should the total interest to be reported be GBP 12 (i.e. GBP1.99 rounding down at each stage by removing pences to GBP 1, and working the total by adding up GBP1x12 =GBP 12); or should it be GBP23 (i.e. Adding up GBP 1.99x12 totalling GBP23.88, then rounding down the total amount GBP 23.88 by removing pences = GBP23)? Had to ask becasue the difference appears quite substantial in terms of percentage, and also application of the removing pences rule at all stages means that the total amount filed would be different from the annual interest certificate given by my bank (the bank does not round down for each month). Does it matter? Thanks for your time and patience.

Dear HRMC admins, Thanks for taking time in considering the following questions. 1. For income in foreign currency, it is understood from the replies from various HRMC admins in this forum that taxpayer can either use (1) monthly rate published by HMRC; or (2) yearly rate published by HMRC. Is this understanding correct? 2. In converting payments based on HRMC's published rate (which sometimes have four decimal places). Should any rounding up/down be applied at any stage before the reaching the final figure? The guidlines in SA100 (page TR1) states that: "To file on paper, please fill in this form using the following rules: • enter your figures in whole pounds – ignore the pence • round down income and round up expenses and tax paid, it is to your benefit • if a box does not apply, please leave it blank – do not strike through empty boxes or write anything else" Do the above rules apply only to the final figures (i.e. total amount for a particular source of income) or do they also apply during the calculation process? For example, if a person has bank savings income of 1 USD per month, based on the Dec 2022 HMRC monthly rate 1.2065, the amount of the monthly income would be converted to GBP 0.8288437629.......(and so on). Assuming that this person also has 1 USD monthly income in Nov 2022 (HMRC's rate 1.1259), there is another GBP 0.8881783462.....(and so on). In calculating the total income (assuming that these are the only income), should the foregoing figures be rounded up/down/removing pence before adding up together (but that would mean the total income is zero)? Or should they be added up together without any rounding / removing pence to reach the final figure (and the pence be removed from the final figure) (i.e. total income is GBP 1 - by removing pences from GBP1.717) ? Thanks for your reply.

Hi HMRC Admins, May I confirm with you that the 5 October 2022 deadline is fulfilled either by the sending of a SA1 form by post (for someone who cannot verify ID for GovGateway), or by the submission of the online SA1 form (for someone who can do this via GovGateway), before 5 October 2022? Presumably, the taxpayer (first time registration) does not have to do anything after submission of SA1 form (either by post or online) until the UTR number from HMRC is received by the taxpayer? Correct? Thanks in advance.

Dear HMRC Admins, Thank you for taking time in answering this query. The information in https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg78321 refers. Is it correct that, for an individual who hasn't been a UK tax resident ever before, for the tax year 2021-2022 (hence, after 6 April 2012), there is no capital gains issue for any withdrawal/transfer out/disposal from an account denominated in a foreign currency held with a foreign bank under the name of that individual (or jointly with another individual)? Put in other words, where an individual has a foreign currency account with a foreign bank and has made some withdrawal from/transfer out of the account during the tax year 2021-2022 (say, inter-bank transfers), is it correct that there is no chargeable gains for such transactions? Let's assume that all withdrawals/transfers were made directly to another account under the name of the individual held with a foreign bank, and hence, no "physical" bank notes/currency were involved. Thanks in advance.

Hi HMRC Admins, Thank you for the reply. What if the combined UK and foreign dividend income is above the dividend allowance of £2000, and the combined UK and foreign interest is above the PSA of £1000, BUT the total income is below the personal allowance of £12,570 (hence no tax to pay). Is SA still required in such a case? When you said all other sources of foreign income would meet SA criteria, does it mean that SA is required for all other sources of foreign income even if the total income for the person is below below the personal allowance of £12,570 (hence no tax to pay)? Thanks again.

Dear HMRC Admins, Good day, and thank you for taking time to answer this question. Going through HMRC's "Check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return" tool (https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return). After the first few questions there is this question “Do you need to pay tax on any of the following?”. One of the “following” being “Income from outside the UK”. Where, in the applicable tax year, a person has some income from outside the UK and the person's total annual income does not exceed the annual personal allowance of £12,570 (applicable to foreign income, right?), there should be no tax to pay on any income (whether UK or foreign), right? Let's say the foreign income is some bank interests not exceeding the starting rate of £5,000 (basically there is no tax to be paid right?). Given that, should the answer to the question “Do you need to pay tax on … Income from outside the UK” be a “no" in this case? By choose the "no" answer (more precisely "none of these") in the HMRC tool, the tool would eventually come to the conclusion that there is no need to register for self-assessment (despite the person has some income outside the UK during the tax year). Is this correct? To frame the question the other way round, for a person having some foreign income during the tax year (say bank interests not exceeding the starting rate of £5,000), but whose total income does not exceed the annual personal allowance, does the person have to register for self-assessment solely because there is some foreign income (for which no tax is to be paid because the total income does not exceed the personal allowance)? Thanks again.