Reminder for financial institutions over reporting of interest payments

HMRC has published Revenue & Customs Brief 34/13 to remind financial institutions that pay interest to their customers to: report this information on a template provided by HMRC; and correctly code these reports according to where the recipient lives—for customers that live in the UK or other countries referred to as fully reportable countries, the form must be marked type 17 or 18 (the names of the report come from the fact that the reporting used to be made under TMA 1970 ss 17 and 18, although they are now made under FA 2011 Sch 23), or in the EU and other prescribed territories, the form must be marked EUSD to make it clear the report is made under the European Union Savings Directive.

The publication of this brief was prompted by the fact that HMRC is aware that a number of institutions are incorrectly coding their reports by, for instance, reporting on the basis of a customer’s nationality rather than the place of their permanent residence.