Reclaiming 14 years tax

greenbenuk

Hi there everyone,

We've recentely just found out that my Mum has been on the wrong NI number aswell as the BR tax code for her widow's pension for the last 14 years. After my Dad passed away 14 years ago, my Mum was left to deal with all the finances without any help whatsoever, nor any previous experience as my Dad was the one who dealt with everything, and so she assumed that things like tax would sort itself out (which obviously it didn't!). I was 8 years old at the time, so I didn't have a clue about this sort of thing either. During these 14 years, the HMRC never sent any letter or any sort of notification about too much tax being paid, it was only after my Mum recentely changed her pension to the state pension that she was told.

When we spoke to the HMRC about this, they said they can strictly only go back 6 years, even though we have been able to dig out the P60s for all 14 years. What I'd like to ask people is, seen as we received no notifcation from the HMRC about too much tax being paid or anything similar, is there any way of being able to claim back 14 years from the HMRC? I'm not freeing my Mum from any blame, she understands now (after I explained the tax system to her) that she should have checked. However I would have thought that the HMRC would have had a system in place to check things like this. I myself was told by the HMRC I had paid too much tax for a year about 3 years ago, and so I am suprised that my Mum hadn't had anything similar in all that time.

We tried to go to the Citizens' Advice Bureau to ask for their advice, but left after an hour and a half of waiting and nobody in the waiting room being called.

Any help with this would really be appreciated!!!

Ben

greenbenuk

Sorry, just realised tht I should have posted this in the Cutting Tax forum!

NASA_2

I think the statute of limitations states that 6 years is all that they can be legally held to. They are very unlikely to go back further than that.

bunny999

There is no way she will get a rebate for more than six years.

alwaysonthego_2

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fengirl_2

As others have said, your mother can only reclaim the past 6 yrs. If HMRC are not given the correct information, then the code number in use wil be carried on from year to year. I expect your overpayment was due to being on emergency code which would immediately flag up a possible overpayment, but at the end of the day, it's the taxpayer's duty to check his or her tax.

robert_harper_2000

But obviously do send photocopies of all proof and make a claim for the full amount, worst case they go back just 6 years. You could probably appeal etc - I would make a concentrated effort. I think the the Bank charges thingy had something about this and still made Banks go back further than the 6 year rule. More info on that on consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forumn good luck