are u due any tax back

isasmurf

Like any other company offering this service they are no better then doing it yourself for free. It is the Inland Revenue (HM Revenue & Customs now) that decide what you are due back based on your tax records, and no external company has access to those records.

Download an R40 form from HMRC's website.

ctm_2

sarahlouise210 wrote:

The Inland Revenue also has a system of tracing employer PAYE references from the Employer name and addresses! It would be a concidence indeed if 2 employers had the same name and the same address!

However, if you gave them the name and address of your employer, but that address isn't their head office, or registered address, or you just gave the address of the place you worked, when the company has many offices etc, then it's next to useless. PAYE Ref if the best way.

Some employers may well have more than one PAYE scheme in operation at the same address, and with the same, or very similar names, so again, the PAYE ref is the best way of getting it sorted quickly.

StockportGerbil

Hi!
Included with the magazine my union sent me was a letter from my union apparently endorsing the services of a company called The Tax refund company. The letter starts off :-

"Important - can you answer yes to any of these statements?

In the last 6 years ....

- I have brought up a child as a single parent
- I have paid a subscription to a professional organisation
- I have had to wash my own work uniform
- I have had to use my own car to do my employers business
- I have worked from home some or all of the time
- I have looked after a grandchild on at least one day a week
- My employer has deducted tax from my wages
And
- I have a child born between 6 April 1985 and 5 April 2003"

It then goes on to offer a service to check your tax for the 'reasonable' sum of 40% of any tax refund. Hmmm... I'd like 100% of my tax refund thank you.

I guess the list above is areas that can be claimed for / checked. Looking at the ones relevant to me that I don't know about, I do work from home occasionally, I'm on PAYE, so my employer does take tax and my son was born before 5th April 2003. What should I be looking for / checking myself? I only work from home once or twice a month, the letter suggests most peoples tax codes are wrong so how do I check that and what difference does it make to the taxman whether I've got children?

Many thanks

Kevin

Paul_Varjak

I have been trying to find 'Working Lunch' on Teletext as they had on item on this a few days ago and referred you to a website that can assist.

I assume, being 'Working Lunch', they would refer you to a website that provided information for free!

If you watch Working Lunch at 12.30pm BBC2 on most weekdays they always give out their teletext page number.

BFG_2

Try http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/programmes/working_lunch/default.stm for the main webpage, and the info provided is
Claim Your Tax Back
www.claimyourtaxback.com
0845 077 6543

Good luck.

System

Please don't go to the Tax refund company the Inland Revenue will review your tax affairs for free.

The reason the tax office is interested in your children is that prior to the current method of claiming Child Tax credit there was the Childrens tax credit which was paid via an allowance in the tax code. You can easily check if either you or your partner received that by looking at your coding notices for the 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 tax years. The Childrens Tax Credit allowance will be listed below the Personal allowance.

A simple letter to your tax office (address on your latest coding notice) asking for your tax affairs to be reviewed with regard to working at home and CTC and anything else you feel is relevant will suffice. The IR will write or phone (if you give them a number) you if any other information is required.

BTW the tax refund company operate by letter only. My experience of dealing with them has generally been something like this.

Taxpayer engages TRC
TRC writes to IR on behalf of client
IR writes to taxpayer to clarify some details.
Taxpayer doesn't reply to IR nor keep TRC up to date.
TRC writes to IR requesting update and threatens legal action if no response.
IR writes to TRC, since no telephone number only a POBox address is supplied, giving update and explaining no reply from taxpayer
TRC contacts their client
Taxpayer replies to IR
IR reviews tax affairs and determines if any refund due. If there is it is paid to the TRC who then take their 40% before passing the remainder to their client. I have seen refunds of as little as £10 paid to TRC who still get 40%.

This can take several months to sort out due to the fact that a middleman is being used and that so much post is involved. The IR have a legal obligation to act on any post within 15 working days. That means at busy times of the year a letter will come into the IR and wait for 3 working weeks before anyone looks at it because of the sheer volume of their other post and the number of telephone and counter calls (taxpayers visiting in person).

Cook_County

Pam17 wrote:

Please don't go to the Tax refund company the Inland Revenue will review your tax affairs for free.

The reason the tax office is interested in your children is that prior to the current method of claiming Child Tax credit there was the Childrens tax credit which was paid via an allowance in the tax code. You can easily check if either you or your partner received that by looking at your coding notices for the 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 tax years. The Childrens Tax Credit allowance will be listed below the Personal allowance.

A simple letter to your tax office (address on your latest coding notice) asking for your tax affairs to be reviewed with regard to working at home and CTC and anything else you feel is relevant will suffice. The IR will write or phone (if you give them a number) you if any other information is required.

BTW the tax refund company operate by letter only. My experience of dealing with them has generally been something like this.

Taxpayer engages TRC
TRC writes to IR on behalf of client
IR writes to taxpayer to clarify some details.
Taxpayer doesn't reply to IR nor keep TRC up to date.
TRC writes to IR requesting update and threatens legal action if no response.
IR writes to TRC, since no telephone number only a POBox address is supplied, giving update and explaining no reply from taxpayer
TRC contacts their client
Taxpayer replies to IR
IR reviews tax affairs and determines if any refund due. If there is it is paid to the TRC who then take their 40% before passing the remainder to their client. I have seen refunds of as little as £10 paid to TRC who still get 40%.

This can take several months to sort out due to the fact that a middleman is being used and that so much post is involved. The IR have a legal obligation to act on any post within 15 working days. That means at busy times of the year a letter will come into the IR and wait for 3 working weeks before anyone looks at it because of the sheer volume of their other post and the number of telephone and counter calls (taxpayers visiting in person).

Firstly NEVER use anyone who is not qualified. Why? A Chartered Tax Adviser for example has to undergo mandatory continuing education, have compulsory insurance and comply with an ethical code. The tax refund company will have none of these requirements.

Secondly while the Inland Revenue are helpful, a good qualified tax adviser will save you more money and handle the paperwork which many of us find difficult.

Thirdly there is no "legal obligation" on the Inland Revenue to reply in 15 days. It is a Blair target, but rarely met...

ctm_2

Cook_County wrote:

Secondly while the Inland Revenue are helpful, a good qualified tax adviser will save you more money and handle the paperwork which many of us find difficult.

Not entirely sure that I agree with that statement.

In the situations this thread refers to, there is really no need to see an accountant/tax advisor, as none of it is difficult, and can all be sorted by a phone call or visit to the inland revenue.

If you don't know how to fill in a form, take your paperwork to your local inland revenue office, and they will help you fill it in and tell you what you need to do. All for free.

All an adviser/accountant will do is basically the same, but charge you for it. It is impossible for an accountant to 'save you more money'. If anything, it will decrease the amount of any refund that you might have received.

WHA

ctm wrote:

NIt is impossible for an accountant to 'save you more money'. If anything, it will decrease the amount of any refund that you might have received.

Sorry, but that is absolute tripe! As an accountant, I often get new clients coming in to see me BECAUSE they have been to the local tax office and got conflicting/bad advice from the Inland Revenue staff.

Examples have included where the tax office has "refused" to allow tax relief for simple things such as legitimate mileage allowances claims, uniform washing, professional subscriptions, etc. I have even had cases where the tax office did not notice that certain allowances were due, i.e. age allowance, married couple's allowance (for older couples), etc. where it was blatently obvious that the person in question was over retirement age by their receipt of state pension!

I can assure you that the tax office staff are more than capable of making very simple errors in very simple tax affairs.

StockportGerbil

Many thanks for the replies so far.
I found the idea of 40% of my overpaid tax being creamed off by these folks for information which I suspect is 'well known' a bit hard to stomach.

Firstly the bit I know. In my job I drive around 6000 miles a year on company business. I get paid expenses at roughly 15p a mile and the tax man allows 40p a mile (for the first 10000 miles.) The difference between what I'm allowed by the tax man and what my employer gives me is deductable against tax. So that's good for three or four hundred quid every year. There is an ongoing thread about washing work uniforms being tax deductable and I knew something about professional subs also being tax deductable (I know I ought to bite the bullet and join but...)

The list in the letter suggests other areas that are tax deductable and I'm using this forum to ask the specifics i.e.

- I have brought up a child as a single parent
(Is this Child Tax Credit or something else?)

- I have worked from home some or all of the time
How often do you have to work at home to qualify, how would you prove it and what can you claim for?

- I have looked after a grandchild on at least one day a week
Eh? Not having any grandchildren this is irrelevant to me, but I'm wondering what they're getting at.

- My employer has deducted tax from my wages
Yes

- I have a child born between 6 April 1985 and 5 April 2003
Again are we talking child tax credit (which my son's mum receives) or something else?

Thanks again

Kevin