Halifax did not action R85 - advice?

chaotic_j

Hi,

An R85 form was submitted after opening a Halifax Fixed Rate Websaver. Received a letter detailing interest to be paid on maturity, which was with tax taken off - unfortunately this letter arrived after the date of maturity.

It seemed that Halifax had not actioned the R85 resulting in only net interest being paid, instead of gross interest.

Telephoned 7/11/09 spoke to someone in savings, explained the situation and they said that they would put the interest in another one of the Halifax accounts.

Telephoned 9/11/09 spoke to someone in savings, explained we had not received the interest yet, they said it will take 4-5 days to investigate and sorry they did not tell us this on 7/11/09.

Received letter 13/11/09 dated 11/11/09 stating that because the account is closed, the interest cannot be paid back to us and we have to complete an R40 form and send it to HMRC.

Telephoned savings again and explained whole situation to someone, they are telling us that they cannot do anything, spoke to their supervisor and they told us the same. They said that the rules have changed with HMRC, they could not tell me what rules or when they changed "because they do not work for HMRC".

Explained how they made the same mistake a couple of years ago and we telephoned them, and received a letter 5 days later and the interest was paid. Also the fact that they took tax from 3 other accounts which R85 forms had been submitted for.

Was then transferred to a Customer Relations Manager who basically again said the same - i.e. they cannot do anything. Had spent 50 minutes on the phone by this time! They said that they can look into it again and we will receive a letter in 5 days but it will be the same response - I said how do you know that before you have looked into it again?

Does anyone know what the best course of action would be? A supervisor has admitted on the phone that they did not action the R85 form, we feel that they should be paying the interest back immediately never mind having to claim it back off HMRC!

Should we put everything in writing to Halifax?

Thanks in advance!

rb10

How did you submit an R85 form? Halifax don't use them any more. To register for gross interest, you make a verbal declaration either in branch or by phone.

I would have thought that the quickest and simplest way to resolve this would be to fill in an R40 form and send it to HMRC.

See R40 notes and form on the HMRC website.

wakeupalarm

If the account is closed you can only claim back the tax by submitting an R40 with HMRC.

opinions4u

chaotic_j wrote: »

Does anyone know what the best course of action would be? A supervisor has admitted on the phone that they did not action the R85 form

Did not action, or have no record of receiving an instruction to action?

Very different things.

we feel that they should be paying the interest back immediately never mind having to claim it back off HMRC!

HMRC won't let them. So getting this sum back is down to the R40 form other posters have mentioned.

Should we put everything in writing to Halifax?

You could reasonably argue that you will lose the ability to save the tax deducted and, as such, will lose interest on this sum.

Assuming you expect to earn 3% on re-investing the tax deducted you are 25p per month per £100 out of pocket.

If the amount is significant then it may be worth pursuing a complaint. But it could end up being a "I submitted an R85 instruction" v "We never received the instruction" conversation where neither side can prove either point.

Personally I'd fill the R40 form in asap and rely on the speed and grace of HMRC to get your money back.

Speculator

I always check my accounts at least one month before maturity to make sure they are registered. This would avoid the need to fill out a form R40.