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Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

I recently received a letter from Halifax Bank regarding 2 of my accounts that I have been using for stealth for a number of years now.

One of theses is a personal account and I use the card in day to day life. The other account is just a savers account with no physical card. Keep in mind that none of these are business accounts. Just personal.

In the letter it states that they've "identified activity which suggests you may be using your account for business or non-personal purposes, we need more information from you to make sure you have the right account for your needs"

It then goes on to state that "in the past 6 months we can see credits totalling £XXXXXX from PayPal"

Now there is a questionnaire that I need to fill out and return to Halifax. Some of the questions are as follows:

What type of non personal business does the activity relate to? (Please tick) Limited Company - Sole Trader - Partnership etc etc

Where are the funds originally from? What were the funds for? What is your relationship with the senders of these funds? Will you be using your account for similar transactions in the future? If yes how often?

Now I admit I am a little worried, has this letter been sent because I should be using a business account instead of a personal one and they simply want to introduce me to a business account? Or do they realise that I am making sales without declaration?

How should I answer these questions? I am not HMRC registered so what do I do.

Thanks

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

They've probably noticed you need to upgrade to their business plans, so they can charge you a monthly fee for using their service.

RE: Tax/Declaration - Speak to an accountant. It might not be too late for you to register with HMRC and declare your income.

Nobody here is a UK accountant, so I wouldn't take any further advice from here.

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

Common Halifax request. In fact I mentioned the other day, the risks of using basic,savers for trading. Banks want to make money. They are after getting an upgrade in fees because of the volume of your transactions, as Play advised. :thumb:

Taxes are for an accountant. Sort that one ASAP.

:coffee:

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

Halifax don't offer business account,
For any bank of you use personal account as business you will get trouble.

Some just send you letter account will be closed in 30 or 60days and not even disclose reason

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

Thank you for the responses :)

So is this something I should be worried about in terms of how I should answer those questions? The thing is I need to send the letter back within 15 days.

I'll be completely honest here. I'd prefer not declare how much I make on those stealth accounts. Reason is because although my turnover seems high, the actual profit is quite small.

I will be registering for HMRC with another account soon as I know I need to for legal reasons.

If I answered those questions and told them that I am a sole trader and selling on eBay for profit will it go any further with Halifax e.g will they contact HMRC and find out that all those transactions were not declared, or is it just a case of Halifax trying to make money by wanting an upgrade in fees?

I plan to send the letter back tomorrow.

Cheers

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

HMRC can pry wherever they like.

Be careful of worrying about the bank letting out info. Shoe can be in the other foot.

:spy:

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

HMRC won't tax you based on turnover, it's based on profits. If your turnover is £100k, but your profits are £100.00, they'll tax you on £100.00.

This thread should be closed now before random members decide to chime in and give advice which will later lead to ramifications for the OP.

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

Yeah this is pretty common. They just want a cut of your business :)

Re: Halifax Bank Sent Me A Letter!!! How do I respond?
 

Why does everyone always bang on about talking to an accountant? accountant is fine for most stuff, but they are duty bound to report stuff they feel is an evasion issue. So there are questions people want to ask a professional but cannot do so on an anon basis, which is why they ask here........

what OP wants to know is a few opinions about if banks may report to H MRC in this situation, or if it is just a bank upgrade issue or both....

they also need to know about how to answer the question, is it better to say sole trader or better say say non-registered.....

sorry I cannot answer the above myself though, as I do not know