www.taxbuddies.com?

sarahmoo

Ok My union (ATL -Im a teacher) has sent me info on this site.

Tax buddies will suss out whether you are owed any tax:

Quote: The tax recovery service is a new additional service to ATL members, which has been negotiated on your behalf.
Over 65% of applicants in the teaching profession who applied for a tax refund through this service have received a refund and members have nothing to lose by applying.

All well and good but you only get 60p back in every £1 for the money they recover for you. All future tax owing is paid in full.

Anyone know anything about this. It is surely legit but are there any better ways of checking where they dont make a mint out of your overpayments?

ps...sorry if it has been discussed b4

Merry christmassssssss

sarahmoo

googled and noticed that there are similar companies with other deals. Reckon the above is a big con ( quote from OH)

jem16

Phone or make an appointment at your local HMRC enquiry office. They will go through your tax affairs with you and see if you are due any repayment. They won't charge you a thing and you will get the whole repayment if you are due anything.

They can go back 6 years so if you haven't been claiming for payments to your union or professional fees like the General Teaching Council you could possibly get a refund on these.

It is very unlikely that taxbuddies.com will do anything more.

Cook_County

This has been discussed many times before. The general opinion seems to be to complain to your Union because these guys are unqualified & charging excessive fees.

trets77

i got £20 quid for excatly 10 mins of work filling the tax buddies form. i know they charge but if you think your refunds may be low then it might be a less hassel option.

but agreed HMRC is the safer bet

SonniC55

I've seen this company too as my wife is a teacher, although I lmao when they wanted to charge 40% of recovered refunds especially when they do next to nowt for it.
I couldn't beleve the union were recomending them I thought unions existed to protect its members from being exploited.

Hoddie_2

I've seen some companies take upwards of 70% of any repayment, and they ruthlessly target CIS workers who in the main are always due some kind of repayment (particularly for the lower paid).

janecayman

:mad: dont touch them!!!! bunch of unfair crooks they charged me over £1500 just because my nhs organisation had used the wrong tax code!!! (which was being sorted by the tax office anyway)

i cant believe that unison recommend them - i have now left the union too as they refuse to see that i dont pay my considerable subs to get recommendations for crooks .:mad:


ring your tax office direct they'll sort you out over the phone very friendly.

TM1976

The key to this is the terms 60p in the pound. There is nothing wrong with paying for someone to help with these claims but check the terms first.

As in this case any percentage based fee system can result in you paying grossly over the odds compared to the value of the service received.

maninthestreet

why resurrect a thread from almost 3 years ago???

uplink_2

hi,
Just to vent some of my anger.
i applied to tax buddies as advised by my union, unison.
low and behold i was due a tax rebate of around £700.00, but had to wait almost 57 weeks to get the cheque minus there 40%, what really angered me was when i contacted them via e-mail i received a reply to stop pestering them and that they would send me regular updates!!!
Regular updates were 4 e-mails all the same, saying they were dealing with the matter, and that it could be a long and slow process, "tell me about it".
I did contact my local tax office at the beginning of june 2010 to ask if they had completed my tax query and what was happening, they told me that my cheque had been sent to tax buddies, and as far as they were aware i should receive my cheque within the next couple of weeks.
I contacted tax buddies: low and behold, my cheque could take another 21 days to process, in total it took 46 days before it dropped through my letterbox.
Don't use them, just not worth them taking 40% for the work they do on your behalf.
Mr Angry.:mad: