Why do lenders still refer to Miras, when it has been abolished for so long (including for loans taken out since abolition)?
Just wondering.
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In what context do they refer to it? As it does not exist I am not sure what opportunity they have to refer to it in 2014. It is not as if it, or something similar, exists but has a different name.
MIRAS 5
It's going back a while but if I remember correctly, MIRAS 5 was the old statutory form that gave the amount of interest (i.e. excluding capital repayment) paid on a mortgage from April to April. Most lending institutions would have had software that produced laser-printed "substitutes" of the statutory forms automatically from their records with the values filled in. Back in those days the substitute forms had to be approved by the HMRC forms unit (hence the wording at the bottom - which would often also have the name of the software that had produced the form).
Although MIRAS has ended lenders still have a need to produce the interest certificate to help taxpayers determine the mortgage interest for the purposes of claiming rental expenses etc. The MIRAS 5 certificate still suffices for this though it is usually called a Certificate of Mortgage Interest, and as no statutory layout is defined the lender here is just sticking to the old software adage of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and continuing to use the old statutory form to provide the same information. As for the letter referring to the name, I guess MIRAS 5 is still a lot easier to write than "Certificate of interest paid".
I know MIRAS sounds like an old scheme, but many mortgages are ending now which qualified for MIRAS.
Can anyone please advice how MIRAS was calculated?
Many thanks.