The Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) comes into force from the start of the 2016/17 tax year and will reduce the amount of tax paid on savings interest for most people.
It is a radical new government scheme designed to encourage people to save more, it is conscious that it needs to incentivise savers at a time when interest rates are historically very low.
Up until the introduction of the PSA all bank and building society interest was paid net – i.e. after 20% has been deducted at source by your account provider (apart from ISAs).
The tax treatment of savings interest changes from 6th April 2016 when everybody will receive their interest payments gross – i.e. without any tax deductions.
The PSA applies to interest earned on all non-ISA cash savings ,current accounts and Peer to Peer lending and will allow savers to receive a generous portion of their interest totally free of tax.
As a result of this move it’s expected that around 95 per cent of savers will receive their interest tax free – a change that gives the vast majority of savers an instant boost of 20% on their savings income.
The amount of tax free interest you will be entitled to under PSA will be based on your annual taxable income as follows:
It’s a positive move that will see lower earners benefit from the largest allowance giving a welcome but long overdue instant boost to UK savers.
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