Readers’ forum: Should my client be in self assessment?

One of my clients is a retired practising accountant. He is not currently a self-assessment (SA) case although he does receive state and private pensions and also has savings income. When considering whether an individual should file SA returns the HMRC questionnaire poses a number of fairly straightforward questions (questions 1 to 5).

In this case the client receives income of less than £50 000 a year some of which is private and state pensions. However he does have investment income.

Question 6 on the HMRC website checker asks: ‘Did you get more than £10 000 from dividends or savings and investments?’. It then goes on to state that income from savings and investments includes savings interest except for ISA interest and also money from bare and interest in possession trusts. However the ‘yes’ answer indicates that either ‘yes I got more...