Providing personal tax information to HMRC 💰🏦

[eugenio (Eugenio Cano-Manuel)]

Hello!

I’m Eugenio. I’m a Backend Engineer here at Monzo, working in the Financial Crime & Security team.

Just wanted to let you know that today and tomorrow we’ll be sending out an email to some of our users to let them know that we’re required to provide HMRC with tax information about users who are resident in a reportable country.

If this applies to you, you should receive an email at some point today or tomorrow. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them below!

[GalaxyMergirl (Allie)]

@eugenio

If this applies to you, you should receive an email at some point today. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them below!

Yes, I have two:

• I haven’t got the email yet, but I will (should) be getting one. Once I renounce my US citizenship, how do I get the reporting stopped? Send a copy of my certificate of renunciation once I get it through the in-app chat or by email or something? I haven’t started to process yet, just asking while I think about it.
• I asked this in the support thread, and I don’t need it now as I got it calculated, but as a feature request it’d be nice to have the ability to get the year’s high-water mark for the account at a glance in-app. Since you need to report this (and so do I on US form FBAR), it’d be nice to just have it as an in-app option.

Thanks!

[eugenio (Eugenio Cano-Manuel)]

@GalaxyMergirl

I haven’t got the email yet, but I will (should) be getting one. Once I renounce my US citizenship, how do I get the reporting stopped? Send a copy of my certificate of renunciation once I get it through the in-app chat or by email or something? I haven’t started to process yet, just asking while I think about it.

You should be receiving an email either today or tomorrow, apologies for the confusion, I’ve now fixed the original post.
In regards to changing your residency status.: Once it happens you can simply change it through the account settings within the app

[jplindstrom (Johan Lindstrom)]

Just go into your Account tab and tap the bar with your name and account details. You’ll be able to change your tax residency from there.

… If you have the latest version of the app installed.

When communicating with customers like this, I suggest mentioning the need to upgrade if the feature hasn’t been available for more than x months/versions. Or just always.

[Dan_R (Dan)]

I didn’t know this happens… what information do you give to HMRC and is it only people outside the UK or something?

[GalaxyMergirl (Allie)]

@DanRoizer

I didn’t know this happens… what information do you give to HMRC and is it only people outside the UK or something?

Unfortunately, those of us with US citizenship are considered ‘tax resident’ by the US (nothing to do with actual residence - you don’t need to have ever even visited the US) and tasked with onerous and invasive filing requirements each year. No actual tax is usually owed, however, as long as you file.

Part of the US-UK treaties says that British banks will report account summaries to HMRC that then get passed back to the US.

Due to CRS, this also applies to people from some other countries but not just for having citizenship.

[Liam_W]

I always found that strange, with regards to US taxing based on citizenship.

How would the US government know that they’re expecting a filing from you, or do parents have to tell the US government about a baby born to them overseas, and that’s how they know?

What happens if you don’t file, and don’t tell banks etc. that you’re technically a US citizen…?

Liam

[GalaxyMergirl (Allie)]

@Liam_W

What happens if you don’t file, and don’t tell banks etc. that you’re technically a US citizen…?

In my case, I was born in the US. The IRS would find me and it wouldn’t be fun. May as well stay on the right side of the law!

I do plan on renouncing, I’m a dual-national by birth, I live and work in England, and England is home to me. It isn’t even for tax filing reasons (the paperwork to renounce is similar to a lifetime of tax filings). It’s mostly related to children. I want my children, if I ever have any, to be British and only British.

If you’re born here to US parents, I suppose unless your parents reported your birth, there’s not much they’d know?

[Morganleprix]

FATCA regulations are a joy. The individual and the financial institution can be fined for non compliance. I still have the scars from that project

[gumbi2400 (Joel)]

Just a friendly heads up to US citizens. If you have AT ANY TIME in 2017 had more than $10k in any financial accounts (this includes most pensions and savings accounts), you must file the FBAR https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar

Be aware that the 10K amount is aggregate of all foreign accounts. It’s my first year having to file it (yay?).

Be aware that the penalties of not filing are pretty massive. It’s $10k per year for accidental non-filing and $100k+ for intentionally not filing.

[milincheta (Manuel)]

Hi @eugenio
I got the email this morning.
Some questions:
My situation: Argentinean national living in Germany. Opened Monzo account 1 year ago when I was living in the UK.

• My questions:

1. In the app I see: Tax residency UK and Germany.
   Do I need to change it? should be just Germany? Argentina?

2. on the app my address is the one of my girlfriend in the UK. Should I update it to my German address?

3. do you have any info/link where I can read about HMRC?

Thanks!

[DoubleRyanG (Ryan Gilmour)]

Hello! Just for my benefit (and obviously others!) - I’d like to confirm what implications there are about being an Isle of Man tax resident?

[Anarchist (Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)]

@milincheta

My questions:

In the app I see: Tax residency UK and Germany.

Do I need to change it? should be just Germany? Argentina?

on the app my address is the one of my girlfriend in the UK. Should I update it to my German address?

do you have any info/link where I can read about HMRC?

1. I believe that you need to keep UK tax residency (at least it says required in the app).

2. I also believe that Monzo is only available to UK residents

3. Here’s a link

[Dawid]

What does it entail though? I am not employed currently but I have money transferred from my savings Lloyds account now and then. I used to live in the UK but I’m out of country for unforeseeable amount of time, so what happens now?

[CraigMcArthur]

Hey Ryan, best info for us on island would be IOM FATCA and CRS details

To my mind; CRS would be the main thing that effects us (FACTA is more about US Citizens finding a line of reporting back to the IRS in the states; not applicable for me personally but if it is for you then details will be in that link)

CRS would help identify if a UK person was claiming to live/work in the island and holding off-shore money and not paying tax on it (income or tax on interest for example).

So if you’re a Manx resident, paying Manx tax, there shouldn’t be any implications (and there haven’t been for me for 5 years holding a lloyds group bank account while being an IOM resident). HMRC would simply be told you’re generating interest/have a balance in IOM and you’re a resident there and any tax due would be due to the IOM Treasury.

FACTA/CRS isn’t any sort of assessment submission to HMRC. I’ve got a number of UK bank accounts. The only query that got raised was where interest on tax should go/be calculated; and it was IOM for me. Didn’t hear anything of it after that.

Craig

[eugenio (Eugenio Cano-Manuel)]

We are aware of the fact that the tax residency option in the app will not let you remove UK from the list of countries. This is a bug , so please ignore it if you’re not a UK tax resident, but make sure all the other applicable countries are selected.

Sorry for the confusion.