Reclaiming tax from my university placement?

Rohaq

I've been looking into reclaiming some of the tax I paid when I was on my university placement for the last year; a little research suggested that I fill out a P50 form and send it off, however I've heard that it can take time, and it would be nice to get the money back sooner rather than later to ease the financial burden of my upcoming final university year.

I received an email advertising the services of Taxback4Students (URL is the company name and .com on the end) from one of the student mailing lists I'm on, and after contacting them, they claim that they can get any tax I'm owed back quickly, taking 10% of it as their fee. They said, and I quote:

Yes the famous P50 form. Your probably have to wait about a year before your money comes through with this.

I was a placement student about 2 years ago, filled in this form and didn’t see a repayment for ages. As I worked in tax I found a quicker way around this which is why I have now opened taxback4students.com. I can usually ensure any funds are repaid in a 4-6 week period as I am a registered agent with HMRC.

I was wondering if anybody knew of any way to get a return on my claim any quicker by doing the legwork myself? It'd be nice to not have to pay somebody else commission if it's something that I can do myself with a little extra work on my part.

Looking forward to people's input!

stazi

"I am a registered agent with HMRC" - I doubt it- it sounds to good to be true. If there are all these 'HMRC approved agents'- how come they don't advertise on the telly??
DIY and get back 100%

bestpud

If it seems too good...

Run a mile!

It takes a few months so it will happen at the normal speed but they've conned people into thinking it normally takes longer.

My advice: get your form in the post - every day spent trying alternatives is another day you have to wait.

Indie_Kid

if you were on a placement - these usually last for about 9 months. Then your income for that year would be too high to claim back tax, surely?

bestpud

sh1305 wrote: »

if you were on a placement - these usually last for about 9 months. Then your income for that year would be too high to claim back tax, surely?

Im not convinced this isn't spam tbh. :cool:

Time will tell.

Rohaq

It was 14 months total. I'll drop the form soon and see what I can or can't claim.

System

Current timescales for post received by HMRC this week are saying that you would receive a response by Chritmas providing you provide all the information required. However you can call the helpline 0845 300 0627 and ask them to check that they have your full employment history already from 06/04/2009 onwards. If they do they may be able to reconcile 09/10 over the phone. If you are looking for an in-year refund for 10/11 you need to submit the P50.

So to make sure they don't have to ask you for further information attach your P45's from any employments and taxable benefits and a choronological employment history.

s4mmy

My daughter took a gap year and worked at a local fitness club. She was given an emergency tax code and had real problems trying to get it changed. However I think that she struck lucky as the last person she spoke to at tax office has sorted it all out and organised the rebate. Result just in time for university.

She had downloaded a form that she believed to be from tax office but fortunately dh checked the form and it was from a private company who were going to charge 10% for making the same phone call

IBB_2

I used taxback4students having completed an internship between my 2nd and final years at uni. I assumed (wrongly) that as I had worked for a full 12 months, the tax would have been correct (i didnt take into acount the April start of the tax year). My contract was July - July. I contacted taxback4students speculatively and they replied very quickly saying I was owed approx £600 and they would get the ball rolling taking a 10% commission. They sent me a letter to sign saying I was happy for them to take the case up. 6 weeks later I had a letter from HMRC saying they owed me £600 for the period and the funds were being sent to taxback4students as they were doing the case. Shortly after taxback4students popped £540 in my account. Easy.

Its not 'too goo to be true'. It's a service and they take a cut. No different to an estate agent selling your house or a recruitment consultant finding you staff, it's the service they provide and of course it isn't altruistic, they make a decent cut!

That said, it was very easy and saved me lots of phone calls, contacting previous employer, waiting around etc before finally getting the rebate after a year!!! They did it all very quickly because they're the professionals!

Good service. Would recommend highly.

t0rt0ise

Sounds silly to me. I'd never pay anyone to do something that I could easily do myself. It's easy enough to send a form in. The same sort of service was advertised through the union at work.. seemed wrong to me for them to be advertising a company like that. I made my own tax claim and got refunded very quickly.