Revolut will report customers to tax authorities

[anotherone]

I just received an email from Revolut asking me to provide fiscal information. The message states (i translate) that as a financial instution they must details of account detained by customers to tax authorities. You can close your revolut account from the settings page of your revolut application.

Here

Last edited: May 25, 2021

 

[Whisky]

They required from me as well. All they wanted was a country of tax residency.

 

[troubled soul]

Sooner or Later every financial institute have to do this.

 

[Martin Everson]

I am surprised at the ones that have not been requesting this information. I mean Revolut is a bank now so they can't hide from it any longer.

Toggle signature
Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[TimeAttack]

But people don't funnel their money from offshore banks to Revolut or other fintech do they? It sounds unsafe.

 

[icare]

In this case I wanted to ask - aren't all e-wallets under CRS at the moment? What about Skrill?

 

[mikestachurski]

Yeah but what if you are a Nomand (don't spend more than 183 days during the year in one country) In that case you are not a tax resident anywhere....

 

[uplana]

mikestachurski said:
Yeah but what if you are a Nomand (don't spend more than 183 days during the year in one country) In that case you are not a tax resident anywhere....
Click to expand...

will be the same, they are regulated and as such they have to report any EU citizen at least.

Toggle signature
Find help to the ultimate anonymous setup on OffshoreCorpTalk - Tried, Tested & Works
Need help to get things done, ping me inside the Mentor Group Gold forums.

 

[Sean Restling]

What exactly are they reporting? Year end balance? When the balance is over 5K? The full month to month analytics? I have a personal account with them and the tax field says "none" as I didn't even know that field existed. In most cases it'll just be a big information overload for the EU govts receiving this information, and lots of govts have troubles when it comes to data crossing.

 

[Martin Everson]

Sean Restling said:
What exactly are they reporting? Year end balance? When the balance is over 5K?
Click to expand...

See below if you want to see exactly what is contained in reporting schema.

https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/common-reporting-standard/schema-and-user-guide/

Sean Restling said:
I have a personal account with them and the tax field says "none" as I didn't even know that field existed.
Click to expand...

Makes no difference for reporting purposes but a nice to have field.

Sean Restling said:
In most cases it'll just be a big information overload for the EU govts receiving this information, and lots of govts have troubles when it comes to data crossing.
Click to expand...

Depends on government. Western government have huge data mining capabilities and can process such information easily. Poorer countries will just bin most of it unless a huge balances come up or names of political opponents smi(&%.

Toggle signature
Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[Sols]

Sean Restling said:
In most cases it'll just be a big information overload for the EU govts receiving this information, and lots of govts have troubles when it comes to data crossing.
Click to expand...

It's worth pointing out that OECD has tried to address this by standardizing the data format in the XML mentioned in the link in @Martin Everson's post above. This makes it easier for internal analysts and external ISVs to develop solutions than if, as was the case with old era TIEAs and similar arrangements, the data is not properly standardized.

Relying on data to be overwhelming is probably effective for now, but as software solutions become better and cheaper, even the least sophisticated tax offices will eventually be able to process the data. At that point, there's nothing other than statues of limitation stopping them from going back a few years and analyze old data they didn't have capacity for previously.

Toggle signature
This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[sabawolo]

mikestachurski said:
Yeah but what if you are a Nomand (don't spend more than 183 days during the year in one country) In that case you are not a tax resident anywhere....
Click to expand...

I doubt it!

 

[Thepopo]

Mining capability? Loool
A vlookup and a pivot table are enough to find you with the excel sheets they send.
The intern in a big4 will be able to find you so no, even poir countries have the capability to find you (and this is due to the standardize column and information that must be sent via an excel file)

 

[Sean Restling]

Depends on government. Western government have huge data mining capabilities and can process such information easily
Click to expand...

It is not unheard of even in western countries to hear about people having hundreds of cars in their name or even flats, yet receiving benefits as they declare zero income, one would think how hard this can be? A massive red flag should pop up, yet no, these fraudsters are only caught when they become too greedy and/or feel untouchable and commit even more outrageous crimes. So yeah I'm not that convinced of how well govt handle data crossing.

 

[Sols]

Sean Restling said:
It is not unheard of even in western countries to hear about people having hundreds of cars in their name or even flats, yet receiving benefits as they declare zero income, one would think how hard this can be?
Click to expand...

It's usually down to a lack of sharing of data or, where data is shared, non-standardized formatting of the data which makes automatic analysis impossible. There are multiple departments involved: land registry, property registry, tax authority, benefits authority, and so on.

It's also not a very high priority. Even these types of rare, extreme cases of benefits fraud are usually trivial on a national budget scale, whereas tax evasion isn't.

Sean Restling said:
So yeah I'm not that convinced of how well govt handle data crossing.
Click to expand...

The XML format provided under OECD model CRS/AEOI makes data analysis trivial.

Motivations are high to spend resources on analyzing this data. The ROI calculation is simple: are the costs of hiring analysts and/or getting software to automatically compare CRS XML data with local tax records less than the immediate and long-term gains of finding out about money hidden offshore? The tax authority doesn't need any other government body to help with this. They have everything contained within themselves. Does Person A's filed taxes line up with the reports coming in from overseas? Yes/no. If no, go to prosecute.

I would not recommend relying on a government's motivation for catching benefits fraud as an indicator for how motivated they are to catch potentially millions and billions of untaxed money. Especially if we're taking about western countries, where tax authorities are usually the most efficient and ruthless government body.

Toggle signature
This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[Oakgrove]

Brand new (personal) Revolut customer signed up in the EU. Told them my tax residency is in the US and put in my TIN during signup. (I have nothing to hide, don't plan to cycle more than maybe 2-3k Euros a yr for travel expenses). Got the email (same day) that "Hey your tax ID may be incorrect, could you verify it in the app" because I think it's confused why I signed up in the EU with an EU phone number & address but my TIN is in there and not an EU tax ID number.

It sounds like I'm safe now, right and it's just their stupid validation check?

 

[Martin Everson]

Oakgrove said:
It sounds like I'm safe now, right and it's just their stupid validation check?
Click to expand...

Safe from what?

A TIN is not mandatory for CRS exchange of information but should be provided if available.

Toggle signature
Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[Oakgrove]

@Martin Everson safe from them saying "We're closing/suspending your acct because you ignored our tax question." 🙂 Being that Revolut can be very trigger-happy in that department.

Yes, I read about your argument that TIN isn't required and the big govt know how to find you, and I totally agree. I put in my US citizenship and tax residency during signup even if I signed up from the EU.

 

[Martin Everson]

Oakgrove said:
@Martin Everson safe from them saying "We're closing/suspending your acct because you ignored our tax question." 🙂 Being that Revolut can be very trigger-happy in that department.
Click to expand...

Ahh ok.

Oakgrove said:
I put in my US citizenship and tax residency during signup even if I signed up from the EU.
Click to expand...

So you would get reported under CRS and FATCA to resident country and US coo-:!y.

Toggle signature
Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[Oakgrove]

So you would get reported under CRS and FATCA to resident country and US coo-:!y.
Click to expand...

Grazie @Martin Everson - they can report the whole EUR500 I plan to leave in there most of the time. 🙂

Out of curiosity I tapped on the 'Confirm your tax identity' blue button in the app, in which they ask for my EU tax ID, with the option to say 'I don't have one' (which I clicked) and then they said something about 'if you're new in the country, you have 90 days to report'. Let's just hope the automated email I got (minutes after my registration got approved) was just a fluke since they have my US TIN already.