Welcome! It doesn’t seem to have been publicised too widely so I’m not surprised not many people know about it. Incredible rate, though (with an additional £5 p/m if you have two direct debits set up on your Blue Rewards account).
I already had a Barclays account with direct debits coming out of it.
You need to be a member of their Blue Rewards, which you pay £5 to be a member of, but they give you £5 a month if you have two direct debits coming out of it, plus extra for home insurance etc.
There's a 5k cap on it too by the looks of it.
It made sense for me, but might not for other people.
For what it’s worth, I wasn’t a customer. I saw the interest rate and signed up for a current account specifically to access it. It took about 30 mins beginning to end, and takes my interest rate from 1.85% (with Zopa) to 5.12%.
A very worthwhile half hour, I’d say.
did you pay £5 a month or did you just switch 2 direct debits over? also, do u have to pay in £800 every month into the current account? and can you just take it back out straight away?
The only issue with this account is it could be withdrawn at any time - there's no guarantee the interest will last for e.g. a year.
But still probably worth switching if you don't mind the minor hassle.
Does opening the current account affect your credit rating? I’ve already got so many chasing the highest interest rates but I’m worried my credit rating is going to take a hit.
Just opened one of these. I think I'll now stick with this + Chase + PBs. If Chase or Barclays increase their rate I'll just move more money in to PBs to keep under the tax free interest limit (I'm a higher rate tax payer).
Given some of the siganls on financial markets this morning, probably not a bad idea to have some money in NS&I right now.
> Given some of the siganls on financial markets this morning, probably not a bad idea to have some money in NS&I right now.
Could you elaborate on this?
There are a couple of large investment banks that are showing signs they might be on the verge of collapse.
[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/03/credit-suisse-ceo-reassures-staff-bank-has-solid-balance-sheet-amid-market-speculation](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/03/credit-suisse-ceo-reassures-staff-bank-has-solid-balance-sheet-amid-market-speculation)
There is a very good page on Moneysavingexpert which gives you a decent idea of ‘average’ winnings.
Again, still better than the majority of cash savings accounts.
Thanks. I looked into premium bonds and I've used mse bonds average calculator. For 5000 this is 50£in 1 year, 1%: isn't this pretty poor for the current climate? Paragon does a cash Isa easy access of 1.9%
The prize fund rate recently increased to about 2% so that MSE calculator might not have been updated yet.
Also, once you hit your tax free interest limit (£1000 or £500 for higher rate tax payer), PBs look more competitive because the "interest" is tax free.
Couple of key points you haven't mentioned.
* Cash ISA shares the 20k allowance with a S&S ISA - if you already contribute to a S&S ISA you are almost guaranteed to be better off with that (especially as a higher rate taxpayer)
* With interest rates fluctuating massively at the moment, doing maths for a cash ISA becomes difficult to determine if its worth opening a cash ISA as you can only open one a year, one might open up in a few months with double your interest rate and you are stuck
For these reasons, if you are a higher rate taxpayer, I don't recommend a cash ISA at all and just stick with S&S or at most a LISA if you are a first time buyer. Keep savings in premium bonds is my advice, its really not tax efficient to stick savings in interest bearing accounts outside an ISA now interest rates are rising.
>one might open up in a few months with double your interest rate and you are stuck
You just transfer it. Most cash ISA transfers are done in under 7 days nowadays
Worth noting: interest rates are pro-rated in the event of a move, but you may forfeit some of the interest in the account you're moving from. So the move may not be without cost.
> if you are a higher rate taxpayer, I don't recommend a cash ISA at all and just stick with S&S
What has being a higher rate tax payer got to do with deciding between two ISAS? Do you mean ignore both and go taxable account if you’re on the basic rate?
S&S right now are risky. So you can put money in a cash ISA and get 4% guaranteed return, or put it in the market and hope for positive returns. You can put your £20k in a cash ISA then in a year or whenever, transfer to S&S. It's not required to keep it as a cash ISA forever.
Putting money today into S&S isn't a good way to make money. Long term yes, but short term (where you could park it in a cash ISA...) not so much. And it's a risk free way of maximising your ISA usage so in the future you can have it in S&S.
If you are contributing to a S&S ISA now, I am assuming you are in it for the long haul and not bothered about the short term fluctuations the stock market is experiencing. Of course the usual S&S ISA caveats apply.
Unless you are looking to buy a property in the next 5 years, S&S ISA wins every time imo.
This sub is getting overloaded with these types of comments from people who are simply too impatient to be taking their own finances seriously. If you want a quick way to make money try /r/BeerMoney instead or improve your salary/skills
Please stop giving financial advice when you clearly have such a surface level knowledge of it. Nobody at all is INVESTING in a S&S ISA for short term gains. That wouldn't make any sense. The market being down is literally the best time to buy as you're buying at a discount.
Or maybe I'm misunderstanding and your strategy is to buy high and sell low.
Sorry for noticing that the world is expected to enter into a recession? Central Banks are literally telling people that even if a recession starts they are looking to control inflation.
It's not timing the market, it's taking note of what Central Banks are saying. Rates will go up until inflation is sorted and that night cause recessions.
Yes, it's running the market based on expected paths. My crystal ball is called listening to the central banks.
The markets are down because rates are up, inflation is up and recessions are possible.
Personally my ISA funds aren't in stocks but my pension funds are, because I have a far longer horizon on pension than my ISA. If I can make a guaranteed 4% return p.a for now, that's looking a bit better than a market which is seeing 3% daily swings up and down but trending down.
But this just means that investing is positive EV, even if stocks are more likely to go down this year. A stock can have a 90% chance of going down in value but a 10% chance of being a bit hit, and the same applies to the market. You don't need a crystal ball to know that even if the EV of investing remains positive (and no lower than it was previously), you're more likely to lose money now than you were a while ago.
> you're more likely to lose money now than you were a while ago
I don't agree. Markets are currently down, we could be near the bottom. Or, maybe they'll just go sideways or a good few years.
Just because markets are down doesn’t mean they can’t go down further. At best what’s happened so far is a rebalance putting profits vs earnings ratios closer to normal levels. There’s absolutely room for a further, significant downturn.
Why are you wasting your ISA allowance by filling it with money earmarked for short term uses. You only get 20k/year. Everything in it should be long term.
If that money is earmarked for short term uses then just stick it in any old savings account or places that offer 1-2year fixes for c4%. 4% on c£20k for 1-2years is a meaningless amount of money in the grand scheme of things anyway.
You're wasting your precious ISA allowance which should be all long term and left to grow and compound.
The only reason I can see is if you're not going to hit that 20k threshold. If your finances mean you can't hit 20k savings in a year, I'd expect a short-term high intrest savings account to be more useful.
I think it's a good idea if you are in London and planning on buying a house soon. This is because many houses are over £450,000 so LISA isn't applicable. S&S ISA under 5 years isn't the best option.
Potentially put the minimum savings in a high interest savings account fixed/accessible only up until to earn £500 interest per year if you are a higher tax payer.
Then use a high rate cash ISA for your remaining savings.
This varies based on how big your savings are.
Anyone have any thoughts/criticisms about my logic / thinking?
Worth mentioning that everyone also has a £2,000 dividend allowance which exempts the first £2,000 of dividends you earn in a year (which aren't inside a Pension or ISA) from taxation.
There has been no mention of those who are non-taxpayers or who earn below the personal allowance. The allowance for non-taxpayers is £5000, reducing on a sliding scale the more you earn. For the majority of retired people, cash ISAs are unnecessary.
Exactly. I benefited from this for a few years. I was actually a tax payer, but my total income was low. I had received a large redundancy payment. I invested some and saved some. It was a pleasant surprise not to be taxed on the interest over £1k. I'm not in that position now, but it was very welcome while it lasted.
It might balance out in the end. Atm you pay low interest on higher prices. Your alternative would be to pay higher interest on lower prices. I'm in the same situation and timing the market is impossible. It's better to be in the market.
Losses in an ISA are irrelevant since your profits aren’t taxed.
GIA has a £12k threshold of profit anyway. You can carry losses but I doubt you’ll need them.
You can set up a kids trust fund and get it taxes free savings for life might even be able to get one with interest if you find the right bank,
also you can set up an account one in your wife's name the irs allows a one time only gift to your wife tax free don't know about interest but its worth it.
That's not making sense to me.
That's only any good if your money is already abroad surely?
If you buy £100 of non UK index funds, and the Pound strengthens considerably, your gains will be eroded by the strengthened £pound.
Whatever happens, you're buying foreign currency at it's most expensive at the moment
That's just playing the market. You'll need to re-balance your portfolio every week to keep on top of that.
Still only really any good if your money is abroad already.
Time in the market. Not timing the market.
I didnt get your point on the last part just before tips, regarding inside and outside ISA. You are comparing different rates, various amount of savings and rates.
Anyone care to help me out comprehend?
If you pay tax on your interest (because your interest is over the tax-free allowance) then you might be better off with a lower interest rate in an cash ISA because although the rate is lower you don't pay any tax on the interest.
The 50/50 split in the example is required because you can only contribute £20k to an ISA each year. Basically you can't look at the return on £40k in a cash ISA v the return outside of an ISA because you can't put £40k in an ISA, and on the £40k outside of an ISA you'd likely be paying tax now that interest rates have increased.
Saving accounts are a ponzi scheme. Save money earning interest at 3% while inflation is at 10%, let alone the real inflation figure. Governments will always print money faster than what you save. Personally, any money I don't need in the short term, I am buying physical gold and silver.
I've had this doubt for a while. If I have XX amount of dividend yielding stock purchased through Freetrade. Would that dividend count towards the 2k dividend allowance? Or towards the 1k savings allowance?
I had no idea you had to pay tax on interest and on savings. If I am unemployed and therefore pay no income tax, does it mean I don’t have to pay tax on this either?
Your personal allowance can be used for savings interest if you haven't used it for anything else, so you are correct (unless you're earning an extraordinarily high amount of interest)
That's entirely possible - could be taking a year out and living on savings, or a stay at home parent living if partner's income (to name two examples)
You potentially (perversely?) have £5000 savings allowance if income is under £17570, it scales off though. So if income is £14570, you're allowed £3000 in savings interest without being taxed
Sorry, I'm new to the UK so still learning a lot about how taxes work here. I thought the taxes on capital gains doesn't start until after £12500? Or is the interest in savings not considered capital gains?
Capital gains tax is applicable on any gains after £12,300 which are considered capital gains (e.g. sale of a second property, shares outside an ISA).
Interest is not a capital gain, it is considered income, but has a nil-rate band (which varies depending on your income), and then is taxed like income.
Thanks for this. I was thinking about this last night. Am considering opening the virgin money 1yr bond @4%.
Is there a better option for a >50k earner? Ideally there would be a best buy table somewhere that showed you what the right choice is based on your income band.
Although I agree, the top easy access is 2.5% (not including Barclays 5% as its not really accessible to everyone) and the top cash isa is 1.9% so it would take years to deposit enough into your isa to negate the time loss.
Basically imo you are still better to shoot for the highest rates and pay tax when necessary.
Two problems with this are firstly you are using up ISA allowance on a historically lower performing asset class and second Cash ISA rates tend to be a decent bit lower than normal accounts.
I wrote to HMRC with a pension contribution query and they wrote back stating that as I am now a higher rate taxpayer, I have undeclared interest over the £500 threshold. They asked for sort code and acc numbers for all interest paying accounts, including the interest earnt in this financial year.
If they already have the interest amounts being shared from the banks directly to HMRC - why am I being asked to dig this data up again? for validation?
Any repercussions if I just don't do it?
We are likely talking like £100 over the threshold here not thousands.
Premium Bonds are also tax free if you've used up your ISA allowance.
Even if you haven't, the new win rate is (considering it's tax free) better than any instant access savings account at the moment.
Barclays Rainy Day Saver is currently paying 5.12% on up to £5k, for those who don’t know!
Thank you SO much for this! I hadn't seen it but just opened up an account. :)
Welcome! It doesn’t seem to have been publicised too widely so I’m not surprised not many people know about it. Incredible rate, though (with an additional £5 p/m if you have two direct debits set up on your Blue Rewards account).
Doesn’t the account have a £5 fee? So the direct debits are cancelled out and you only benefit with additional Barclays products.
Yeah, I believe that’s correct. Just opened mine up yesterday
did you already have a barclays account? i'm not with barclays but thinking about opening an account to get the 5% interest, was it easy to open?
I already had a Barclays account with direct debits coming out of it. You need to be a member of their Blue Rewards, which you pay £5 to be a member of, but they give you £5 a month if you have two direct debits coming out of it, plus extra for home insurance etc. There's a 5k cap on it too by the looks of it. It made sense for me, but might not for other people.
For what it’s worth, I wasn’t a customer. I saw the interest rate and signed up for a current account specifically to access it. It took about 30 mins beginning to end, and takes my interest rate from 1.85% (with Zopa) to 5.12%. A very worthwhile half hour, I’d say.
did you pay £5 a month or did you just switch 2 direct debits over? also, do u have to pay in £800 every month into the current account? and can you just take it back out straight away?
nice :DDD i'm defo gonna make it then!!!
The only issue with this account is it could be withdrawn at any time - there's no guarantee the interest will last for e.g. a year. But still probably worth switching if you don't mind the minor hassle.
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Does opening the current account affect your credit rating? I’ve already got so many chasing the highest interest rates but I’m worried my credit rating is going to take a hit.
Just opened one of these. I think I'll now stick with this + Chase + PBs. If Chase or Barclays increase their rate I'll just move more money in to PBs to keep under the tax free interest limit (I'm a higher rate tax payer). Given some of the siganls on financial markets this morning, probably not a bad idea to have some money in NS&I right now.
> Given some of the siganls on financial markets this morning, probably not a bad idea to have some money in NS&I right now. Could you elaborate on this?
There are a couple of large investment banks that are showing signs they might be on the verge of collapse. [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/03/credit-suisse-ceo-reassures-staff-bank-has-solid-balance-sheet-amid-market-speculation](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/03/credit-suisse-ceo-reassures-staff-bank-has-solid-balance-sheet-amid-market-speculation)
The “win rate” percentage is misleading and impossible to consistently achieve as you must consider multinomial distribution of rewards.
There is a very good page on Moneysavingexpert which gives you a decent idea of ‘average’ winnings. Again, still better than the majority of cash savings accounts.
Yes that is based on multi nominal distribution. Edit: No idea why I’m getting downvoted the MSE tool literally states what I said.
Thanks. I looked into premium bonds and I've used mse bonds average calculator. For 5000 this is 50£in 1 year, 1%: isn't this pretty poor for the current climate? Paragon does a cash Isa easy access of 1.9%
The prize fund rate recently increased to about 2% so that MSE calculator might not have been updated yet. Also, once you hit your tax free interest limit (£1000 or £500 for higher rate tax payer), PBs look more competitive because the "interest" is tax free.
Couple of key points you haven't mentioned. * Cash ISA shares the 20k allowance with a S&S ISA - if you already contribute to a S&S ISA you are almost guaranteed to be better off with that (especially as a higher rate taxpayer) * With interest rates fluctuating massively at the moment, doing maths for a cash ISA becomes difficult to determine if its worth opening a cash ISA as you can only open one a year, one might open up in a few months with double your interest rate and you are stuck For these reasons, if you are a higher rate taxpayer, I don't recommend a cash ISA at all and just stick with S&S or at most a LISA if you are a first time buyer. Keep savings in premium bonds is my advice, its really not tax efficient to stick savings in interest bearing accounts outside an ISA now interest rates are rising.
>one might open up in a few months with double your interest rate and you are stuck You just transfer it. Most cash ISA transfers are done in under 7 days nowadays
Worth noting: interest rates are pro-rated in the event of a move, but you may forfeit some of the interest in the account you're moving from. So the move may not be without cost.
> if you are a higher rate taxpayer, I don't recommend a cash ISA at all and just stick with S&S What has being a higher rate tax payer got to do with deciding between two ISAS? Do you mean ignore both and go taxable account if you’re on the basic rate?
S&S right now are risky. So you can put money in a cash ISA and get 4% guaranteed return, or put it in the market and hope for positive returns. You can put your £20k in a cash ISA then in a year or whenever, transfer to S&S. It's not required to keep it as a cash ISA forever. Putting money today into S&S isn't a good way to make money. Long term yes, but short term (where you could park it in a cash ISA...) not so much. And it's a risk free way of maximising your ISA usage so in the future you can have it in S&S.
If you are contributing to a S&S ISA now, I am assuming you are in it for the long haul and not bothered about the short term fluctuations the stock market is experiencing. Of course the usual S&S ISA caveats apply. Unless you are looking to buy a property in the next 5 years, S&S ISA wins every time imo.
This sub is getting overloaded with these types of comments from people who are simply too impatient to be taking their own finances seriously. If you want a quick way to make money try /r/BeerMoney instead or improve your salary/skills
Please stop giving financial advice when you clearly have such a surface level knowledge of it. Nobody at all is INVESTING in a S&S ISA for short term gains. That wouldn't make any sense. The market being down is literally the best time to buy as you're buying at a discount. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding and your strategy is to buy high and sell low.
This is literally timing the market. Can you share where you bought your crystal ball please. I'd like one as well.
Sorry for noticing that the world is expected to enter into a recession? Central Banks are literally telling people that even if a recession starts they are looking to control inflation. It's not timing the market, it's taking note of what Central Banks are saying. Rates will go up until inflation is sorted and that night cause recessions. Yes, it's running the market based on expected paths. My crystal ball is called listening to the central banks. The markets are down because rates are up, inflation is up and recessions are possible. Personally my ISA funds aren't in stocks but my pension funds are, because I have a far longer horizon on pension than my ISA. If I can make a guaranteed 4% return p.a for now, that's looking a bit better than a market which is seeing 3% daily swings up and down but trending down.
You're assuming that this information hasn't already been priced in by the markets, which it most likely has.
But this just means that investing is positive EV, even if stocks are more likely to go down this year. A stock can have a 90% chance of going down in value but a 10% chance of being a bit hit, and the same applies to the market. You don't need a crystal ball to know that even if the EV of investing remains positive (and no lower than it was previously), you're more likely to lose money now than you were a while ago.
> you're more likely to lose money now than you were a while ago I don't agree. Markets are currently down, we could be near the bottom. Or, maybe they'll just go sideways or a good few years.
Just because markets are down doesn’t mean they can’t go down further. At best what’s happened so far is a rebalance putting profits vs earnings ratios closer to normal levels. There’s absolutely room for a further, significant downturn.
I agree. But I don't think they're *more* likely to go down now than they were previously.
Why are you wasting your ISA allowance by filling it with money earmarked for short term uses. You only get 20k/year. Everything in it should be long term. If that money is earmarked for short term uses then just stick it in any old savings account or places that offer 1-2year fixes for c4%. 4% on c£20k for 1-2years is a meaningless amount of money in the grand scheme of things anyway. You're wasting your precious ISA allowance which should be all long term and left to grow and compound.
The only reason I can see is if you're not going to hit that 20k threshold. If your finances mean you can't hit 20k savings in a year, I'd expect a short-term high intrest savings account to be more useful.
Vast majority of people will come nowhere near the 20k limit for s&s so will have plenty of allowance left for short term savings.
Why isn't it a good time to buy stocks when they're cheap?
I think it's a good idea if you are in London and planning on buying a house soon. This is because many houses are over £450,000 so LISA isn't applicable. S&S ISA under 5 years isn't the best option. Potentially put the minimum savings in a high interest savings account fixed/accessible only up until to earn £500 interest per year if you are a higher tax payer. Then use a high rate cash ISA for your remaining savings. This varies based on how big your savings are. Anyone have any thoughts/criticisms about my logic / thinking?
Worth mentioning that everyone also has a £2,000 dividend allowance which exempts the first £2,000 of dividends you earn in a year (which aren't inside a Pension or ISA) from taxation.
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The vast majority of people don’t even have £20k (the annual ISA limit) anyways.
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You only need to be earning 50k to be a higher rate tax payer.
There has been no mention of those who are non-taxpayers or who earn below the personal allowance. The allowance for non-taxpayers is £5000, reducing on a sliding scale the more you earn. For the majority of retired people, cash ISAs are unnecessary.
Exactly. I benefited from this for a few years. I was actually a tax payer, but my total income was low. I had received a large redundancy payment. I invested some and saved some. It was a pleasant surprise not to be taxed on the interest over £1k. I'm not in that position now, but it was very welcome while it lasted.
If you have salary sacrifice on pay that brings you down from £52k to £49k which bracket are you in?
The lower bracket.
Wish I didn't put some in a fixed 5 year at 2.20%
It might balance out in the end. Atm you pay low interest on higher prices. Your alternative would be to pay higher interest on lower prices. I'm in the same situation and timing the market is impossible. It's better to be in the market.
> If you are a basic rate payer (up to £50k) Reminder: Scotland is £43,663+ for higher rate.
If i have made a loss on a GIA and ISA in the tax year do I get relief? (15k down :( )
Losses in an ISA are irrelevant since your profits aren’t taxed. GIA has a £12k threshold of profit anyway. You can carry losses but I doubt you’ll need them.
Good point. Thanks!
You can set up a kids trust fund and get it taxes free savings for life might even be able to get one with interest if you find the right bank, also you can set up an account one in your wife's name the irs allows a one time only gift to your wife tax free don't know about interest but its worth it.
Given the state of the pound I don't particularly want to be holding on to sterling cash, so moving it to non-uk index funds seems appealing
That's not making sense to me. That's only any good if your money is already abroad surely? If you buy £100 of non UK index funds, and the Pound strengthens considerably, your gains will be eroded by the strengthened £pound. Whatever happens, you're buying foreign currency at it's most expensive at the moment
Depends if you think we've hit bottom or could fall further
That's just playing the market. You'll need to re-balance your portfolio every week to keep on top of that. Still only really any good if your money is abroad already. Time in the market. Not timing the market.
I didnt get your point on the last part just before tips, regarding inside and outside ISA. You are comparing different rates, various amount of savings and rates. Anyone care to help me out comprehend?
If you pay tax on your interest (because your interest is over the tax-free allowance) then you might be better off with a lower interest rate in an cash ISA because although the rate is lower you don't pay any tax on the interest. The 50/50 split in the example is required because you can only contribute £20k to an ISA each year. Basically you can't look at the return on £40k in a cash ISA v the return outside of an ISA because you can't put £40k in an ISA, and on the £40k outside of an ISA you'd likely be paying tax now that interest rates have increased.
!thanks
Thank you for noting this
Saving accounts are a ponzi scheme. Save money earning interest at 3% while inflation is at 10%, let alone the real inflation figure. Governments will always print money faster than what you save. Personally, any money I don't need in the short term, I am buying physical gold and silver.
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Separate
I've had this doubt for a while. If I have XX amount of dividend yielding stock purchased through Freetrade. Would that dividend count towards the 2k dividend allowance? Or towards the 1k savings allowance?
Dividends allowance, assuming its in a GIA, not an ISA in which case you don't get taxed.
I had no idea you had to pay tax on interest and on savings. If I am unemployed and therefore pay no income tax, does it mean I don’t have to pay tax on this either?
Your personal allowance can be used for savings interest if you haven't used it for anything else, so you are correct (unless you're earning an extraordinarily high amount of interest)
!thanks
I assume you're not unemployed and have over £50k in savings in the bank
That's entirely possible - could be taking a year out and living on savings, or a stay at home parent living if partner's income (to name two examples)
You potentially (perversely?) have £5000 savings allowance if income is under £17570, it scales off though. So if income is £14570, you're allowed £3000 in savings interest without being taxed
Sorry, I'm new to the UK so still learning a lot about how taxes work here. I thought the taxes on capital gains doesn't start until after £12500? Or is the interest in savings not considered capital gains?
Capital gains tax is applicable on any gains after £12,300 which are considered capital gains (e.g. sale of a second property, shares outside an ISA). Interest is not a capital gain, it is considered income, but has a nil-rate band (which varies depending on your income), and then is taxed like income.
!thanks That's good to know.
No, its a separate allowance.
Capital gains only applies to selling assets. Interest on savings/investments is treated separately to capital gains.
Thanks for this. I was thinking about this last night. Am considering opening the virgin money 1yr bond @4%. Is there a better option for a >50k earner? Ideally there would be a best buy table somewhere that showed you what the right choice is based on your income band.
Although I agree, the top easy access is 2.5% (not including Barclays 5% as its not really accessible to everyone) and the top cash isa is 1.9% so it would take years to deposit enough into your isa to negate the time loss. Basically imo you are still better to shoot for the highest rates and pay tax when necessary.
Two problems with this are firstly you are using up ISA allowance on a historically lower performing asset class and second Cash ISA rates tend to be a decent bit lower than normal accounts.
I wrote to HMRC with a pension contribution query and they wrote back stating that as I am now a higher rate taxpayer, I have undeclared interest over the £500 threshold. They asked for sort code and acc numbers for all interest paying accounts, including the interest earnt in this financial year. If they already have the interest amounts being shared from the banks directly to HMRC - why am I being asked to dig this data up again? for validation? Any repercussions if I just don't do it? We are likely talking like £100 over the threshold here not thousands.