What's new
11 August 2006
New 2006/07 guidance notes for ss 17
and 18 returns
New versions of the ss17 and 18 guidance notes are now available. Full details
of the substantive changes made are in a separate note with the guidance.
Broadly the guidance has been restructured to make it easier to use, reordered
to improve its readability and rewritten to remove the passive sentences.
Very few of the 'rules' have actually changed.
20 June 2006
New Guidance Notes and update
A new version of the Guidance Notes (version 5) is now available. The website
has been updated accordingly, including an updated list of prescribed territories
and those operating a transitional withholding tax, and an expanded list of
ISO country codes.
30 June 2005
New Guidance Notes and update
A new version of the Guidance Notes (version
4) is now available. The website has also been updated to reflect the latest
position. This particularly affects the FAQs which now include a full list
of the prescribed territories and those territories which will be operating
a transitional withholding tax. A question and answer has also been added
about the position of UK resident investors who are not domiciled in the UK.
30 June 2005
Updated Guidance Notes (RTF 740K)
A revised Version 4 of the Guidance Notes is now available showing the main
changes compared with Version 3. Minor changes have also been made to the
answers to FAQs 1.2 and 2.1.
20 June 2005
New Guidance Notes and update (PDF 306K)
A new version of the Guidance Notes (version 4) is now available. The website
has also been updated to reflect the latest position. This particularly affects
the FAQs which now include a full list
of the prescribed territories and those territories which will be operating
a transitional withholding tax. A question and answer has also been added
about the position of UK resident investors who are not domiciled in the UK.
13 June 2005
Amending regulations have now been laid. The regulations prescribe the territories mentioned in the news item of 20 May. In addition to these territories, the regulations also prescribe Gibraltar. The regulations make consequential changes to reflect these new prescribed territories, and some small corrections.
The scheme will come into force on 1 July 2005. Revised guidance notes will be available shortly to reflect the changes made by these regulations
25 May 2005
applying for a certificate. Guidance is now available for UK investors on how to apply for a certificate so that they can receive savings income without deduction of withholding tax under the Directive.
20 May 2005
News on prescribed territories. Details of which of the 10 associated and dependent territories which will be prescribed are now available. The following 7 territories will be prescribed: Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Montserrat and Netherlands Antilles. The remaining 3 territories - Anguilla, Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos Islands - will not be prescribed because the agreements with these territories are not reciprocal. The agreements with the territories are also available. Regulations will be laid shortly to prescribe these territories and make consequential changes. None of the third countries will be prescribed
31 January 2005
Update of webpages. The pages of the website have been updated to reflect recent changes, and links have been refreshed. Please note that the old contact email is no longer active. All queries by email should be sent using the link on the How to contact us page or the address on page 1 of the Guidance Notes.
25 January 2005
European Union Savings Directive Guidance notes (version 3 )(PDF 726K)
The third version of the EUSD Guidance Notes has now been published.
22 October 2004
European Union Savings Directive Guidance Notes (Version
2)
The Second Version of the EUSD Guidance Notes are now available on the EUSD
section of the website. They clarify and expand on a number of areas including
the identification and residence rules, pension funds and charities, the prescribed
territories and the nature of the Audit.
3 August 2004
BFPO Addresses
BFPO addresses will, usually, not be reportable as they will generally not
be the individual's permanent address. They should only be reported if they
are the permanent residential address for the area in which the investor lives
and would allow them to be traced; in a similar fashion to reporting them
under S17 and 18. It is the paying agents responsibility to take reasonable
steps to check the given BFPO address is acceptable as such. As ever all details
of checks made and information received from the individual should be retained
in case of audit. More details on BFPO addresses can be found in the Guidance,
paragraphs 117-120'
20 July 2004
European Union Savings Directive
The Savings Income Reporting rules will not now come into effect until 1 July
2005. On this basis, the first savings income reports would cover the period
1 July 2005 - 5 April 2006 and would need to be submitted to the Inland Revenue
by 30 June 2006. Reporting under sections 17 and 18 TMA will continue as normal.
Reports for the current tax year (that is those reports covering the period
6 April 2004 - 5 April 2005), should use the revised reporting format as planned.
This is available on the Savings Directive area of the website under the Guidance.
1 May 2004
Today, the ten accession states became member states of the European Union. The ECOFIN Council has explicitly stated that they expect the Directive to apply to them as it does to existing Member States. This means that UK paying agents will report savings income payments to residents of these countries, and the UK will receive details of payments to UK residents from paying agents in these countries. It also means that the reporting requirements for individuals resident in these countries will change depending on whether contractual relations began post or prior to 01/01/04 as with all member states. These countries consist of Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Czech Republic and Cyprus.
8 April 2004
European Union Savings Directive
The 'countering cross border tax evasion by individuals' pages of the website
have been updated to include the
Finance Bill 2004 legislation that completes the implementation in the
UK of the EU savings directive. The Directive is designed to help combat cross-border
tax evasion by individuals on their savings income. As an alternative to exchanging
information about cross-border payments, three EU countries (Austria, Belgium
and Luxembourg) will, for a transitional period, impose a special withholding
tax. This legislation ensures that Individuals taxable in the UK receiving
interest from these countries which has suffered special withholding tax will
be able to set the tax withheld against their UK tax liability to income tax
or capital gains tax. Any excess will be repaid to them. Alternatively they
will be able to apply for a certificate which may enable them to receive their
savings income without the levy of special withholding tax. The UK
investors section of the website has also been updated to reflect the
legislation.’
2 March 2004
The 'countering cross border tax evasion by individuals' pages of the website have been updated to include a paper on Contractual Relations and the application of the pre and post 1/1/04 rules. These support the Guidance notes that went online on the 18th of February 2004.
26 February 2004
The 'countering cross border tax evasion by individuals' pages of the website have been updated to include the Magnetic Media Specifications for reporting to the Inland Revenue. These support the Guidance notes that went online on the 18th of February 2004. An appendix has been added to these guidance notes containing the ISO country codes.
18 February 2004
The 'countering cross border tax evasion by individuals' pages of the website have been updated. They now contain:
