Personal bank account details when self employed & the inland revenue?

Question

When self employed and if you have a seperate business bank account for your business tansactions do you still need to submit your personal bank account details to the inland revenue aswell?

Answer 1

Obviously you need to enter details of any interest earned on your private accounts in your returns. As fengirl says, private account details would not be required unless an enquiry into your return has been opened.

The Inspector often asks for private bank statements when opening an investigation but this is beyond his authority. You are required to provide evidence to support the entries in your return.The interst figure can be proved by providing a bank certificate.

The Inspector will say that the private bank statements are required to confirm the drawings figure but this is not the case. If your business records are adequate then the entries on the self-employed pages can be supported by the business bank account. The private account would only be necessary where there is some doubt of the completeness of the business records.

I'm not telling you not to provide them but in this situation you are entitled to ensure they are necessary to the enquiry before releasing them.

Answer 2

Unless you are under investigation, where full disclosure is required there are very few circumstances when the Revenue would need that information.

One circumstance I can think of is if you are negotiating a time to pay arrangement and the Revenue require your Income & expenditure. Here details of all your bank accounts and their balances would be required.

If you have been asked for the information then it is in your best interest to provide it.

Answer 3

In what connection are you asking this? In the normal course of your dealings with HMRC you wouldn't give them your personal or business bank details (Unless you are climing a refund and want it paid into your account, in which case, either accounts would do). The only time I can imagine you giving details of all bank accounts held would be if you were the subject of an enquiry - in whcih case you would have to disclose everything.

Answer 4

Fraid so.