UK. Bank Enquiry

[jonesthepost]

Has anybody received a Tax resident enquiry from their UK, Bank suggesting that they are a tax resident of Thailand. RBS. bank have just sent me one, as like many of us my pensions are paid in to a UK. Bank. As my pensions are my only income I pay tax to UK, and the UK. tax office know this so what has a got to do with the bank

[ukrules]

I believe banks are required by law to confirm your tax residency every now and again.

They asked me this recently, of course I confirmed I'm still in the UK.

Never tell your UK bank anything that might cause you problems - like the fact that you might be living in another country on a temporary basis.

For the purposes of the above statement I'm using the word 'temporary' in the context that I'm not a citizen of Thailand so my stay is temporary. Temporary could be 1 month, 5 years, 25 years, etc. It depends how you look at it I guess.

[jonesthepost]

As far as I can make out it is to do with a tax sharing information agreement. Which I suppose is to catch the wealthy Tax dodgers, but whats it got to do with elderly retired pensioners who pay UK tax on their pensions. The information the bank and the tax office already have, and both the UK bank and Thai bank know where my funds come from. Looks like that the decor to protect the rich and making out they or doing something, And why are the banks being ask too provide information they all ready know, surely a direct apply to the person as to if he is a Thailand tax resident or not is the way to go.I have fill the form in and sent it with a covering note That I am not or a Thailand tax resident or a Thai resident.

[DUS]

Hi Jones,

When did you leave the UK or, respectively, when did you inform HSBC about your current address in TH? Are we talking about a few years ago or a date more recently?

Cheers

DUS

[jonesthepost]

Hi Jones,

When did you leave the UK or, respectively, when did you inform HSBC about your current address in TH? Are we talking about a few years ago or a date more recently?

Cheers

DUS

13 years ago the same address

[DUS]

Hi Jones,

When did you leave the UK or, respectively, when did you inform HSBC about your current address in TH? Are we talking about a few years ago or a date more recently?

Cheers

DUS

13 years ago the same address

Thank you!

It will be interesting to see over the coming months if more people will receive this letter and if the banks "target" everyone regardless of their time of absence from the UK or only those who left the UK a long(ish) time ago.

[topt]

Hi Jones,

When did you leave the UK or, respectively, when did you inform HSBC about your current address in TH? Are we talking about a few years ago or a date more recently?

Cheers

DUS

13 years ago the same address

Thank you!

It will be interesting to see over the coming months if more people will receive this letter and if the banks "target" everyone regardless of their time of absence from the UK or only those who left the UK a long(ish) time ago.

Yes I received a letter from my offshore bank in the Channel Isles saying unless I filled in some info and returned it they would be notifying HMRC blah blah. I had no problem with that except they obviously had not bothered to check with the "relationship managers" as the information they had was wrong. They considered me tax resident in the UK which I have not been since before I opened the account with them.They also gave insufficient time to return the form back from Thailand before the date at which they said they would be informing HMRC.

I was told that they had a lot of complaints from customers about this. The main issue was that if you considered yourself resident in any country you needed to provide some sort of Tax ID number or equivalent and if you did not they were inclined to ignore whatever you wrote!

[Ricardo]

Yes I received a letter from my offshore bank in the Channel Isles saying unless I filled in some info and returned it they would be notifying HMRC blah blah. I had no problem with that except they obviously had not bothered to check with the "relationship managers" as the information they had was wrong. They considered me tax resident in the UK which I have not been since before I opened the account with them.They also gave insufficient time to return the form back from Thailand before the date at which they said they would be informing HMRC.

I was told that they had a lot of complaints from customers about this. The main issue was that if you considered yourself resident in any country you needed to provide some sort of Tax ID number or equivalent and if you did not they were inclined to ignore whatever you wrote!

Ditto ... I've had to provide extra information, to my Jersey bank, twice over the past three years.

One slight problem is that, since I have minimal income (only a few thousand Baht a year) arising here in Thailand, I don't complete a Thai tax-return, fortunately HMRC's letter from 2004 (acknowledging my having ceased to be UK-tax-resident when I left) helps demonstrate my clear non-residence in the UK/EU.