Snowy560

Who is asking for your Canadian SIN number Snoop? Is it a UK bank or HMRC or both? Does your UK bank have your Canadian address? Mine does and so does HMRC. I haven't had such a request so curious to know the context.

Shakyuk

Some interesting information in this thread, thanks to everyone

snoopdawg

It is our bank, RBS and HSBC for the kids. Plus we have requests from some life insurance companies.
They all have our Canadian addresses.

Snowy560

Weird.

snoopdawg

I know and its bugging me.
They all say the same thing that they have to establish tax residency, and then maybe inform HMRC. They says its because of new rules signed by the UK Gov.
I'm quite sure all the letters are legit, they are all companies we have dealings with- the "insurance " companies starting it and now the banks are following. We have been here 8.5 years and HMRC are aware. The kids were only 9 & 15 when they left.
I'm filling all the forms in but not giving SINs - I say not required to give to a foreign bank/company.
I've had 2 replies so far, saying they will share details with HMRC. We'll see what happens after that, I'm not hiding anything.

Snowy560

We have accounts with HSBC & FD but no such request. Perhaps ours are to come. We have been filing self assessments but HMRC agreed to let us stop this year.

How does giving your SIN number establish tax residency? Even if you were to agree to give it to them surely they'd have to have your permission to divulge it?

Aviator

It doesn't and banks don't need special permission to share information with the tax authorities. You agree when you open an account.

snoopdawg

I don't think it does either! Anyway, they aren't getting it for any of us!
The letters are coming in sporadically. Stinky hasn't had one from the Royal Bank yet.
I just noticed on the Royal bank letter for me -they want a certified copy of a "valid passport issued by the jurisdiction in which you claim to be resident"
This is bizarre and a sore point for us!
So you have to have a passport to prove tax residency!!!
Makes no sense. HSBC and the insurance companies didn't ask for that.

Snowy560

I had to prove various things with FD to do with my ID last year. A few of us on here got asked. FD are really good. You can call up and have a sensible conversation with them. Is it worth you sending a secure message asking to speak to someone because you have concerns over ID fraud and you need to clarify the situation?

MarkG

I'm 99% sure that's only if you're claiming to be resident in a country other than Canada (otherwise it would obviously be impossible for PRs, since they don't have Canadian passports). But the letter is mostly gibberish.

I sent mine to Natwest a few weeks back as I figure enough companies in America have my SIN that adding another in the UK doesn't make much difference. But I should really just close the account, as I only use it to send Christmas cheques to people, and could just use Paypal these days.

snoopdawg

We would too but we have active life/critical illness/sickness insurance that we took out years ago and they agreed to keep active as long as we pay from a UK bank account.
Its also easier for elderly relatives to pay regular money into UK accounts for the kids/Christmas/birthdays
I won't waste my time phoning- I'll send an irritated note instead! I don't think its fraud just written by a trainee!

MarkG

Yeah, I think I'll use the account this Christmas, then close it next time I'm in the UK. I kept it open in case I ever decided to move back, but I can't see that happening now.

Steve_

Yeah I was just going to chime in and say under the tax treaty the HMRC has in the last few years been trying to improve their information collection from overseas so it is quite likely you might have to provide your SIN to a UK bank so they can identify you as resident in Canada for tax purposes.

Have to say I've never done it to date though. Possibly they're on about the FATCA agreement as well, i.e. they're establishing that you're not an American.

As for providing a passport, that's also to do with the anti-money laundering regulations, passport is only one of the documents you can provide, a PR card would be another, that's just a badly worded letter.