Overpaying on tax. Getting the money back?

Bev._2

First off, sorry if this is the wrong spot. If it is, could a mod please move the thread.

Right, a few years ago (perhaps around 2006/2007) i filled in a form which got sent off to some (i can't remember which) company, who investigate whether you have any overpaid tax owing to you.
For this IIRC they take a 40% cut, which i was happy enough with. If you owe, then you wont be charged, whereas it was written if you search yourself & you owe, you will have to pay back. Add to that the fact i wouldn't know where to begin while doing all this - i was quite happy with the 40% fee.
In the end i got about £50 back.
I filled a form out the next year (as i thought they investigated the previous tax years affairs). I had my papers sent back to me as they had already completed this task for me once before & i didn't/wouldn't need it again.

Fast forward to today, and i get a message off an old workmate. True or not, he said he's seen his accountant & he's owed £2k in overpaid tax from when he worked at the place i work (the company i work for are right fiddlers, so this really wouldn't surprise me one bit).

How can i find out if i am owed anything? I am assuming there's a charge for this service.

WestonDave

Phone your local tax enquiry office (look on the HMRC website) - you'll need your National Insurance number, and ask them to send you out a statement for any years you want to query. Then its simply a question of checking the allowances etc against the figures given on the HMRC website - or come back here for more advice. There is absolutely no need to pay anyone to do this - the HMRC staff are very helpful. Its also likely that unless your employers were really bent, you will only have overpaid tax if they ignored coding notices or you had tax deductible items that you didn't claim e.g. pension contributions or gift aid payments, or they were collecting tax on benefits in kind that didn't exist. That can happen as once the Revenue get them on your "account" they often forget to take them off even if they stop.

jennifernil

If you have the old P60s or payslips, you can easily work it out, no need to involve HMRC.

Bev._2

I've only ever claimed SSP. Don't know whether this would be classified as a benefit or not, but that's it. I also don't pay into a pension & never have.

The company i sent off to kept all but the most recent P60 at that time IIRC so Let's say i handed in 2003-04, 2004-05 & 2005-06 P60's for arguments sake, they kept the first 2 & returned the 05/06 one to me.

With all that said, i always keep my payslips, so i have these dating back to January 2003. I've got all weekly payslips since then apart from 1 in May last year which i somehow lost.


So if i look at the year end figures (tax year, not calendar year), what do i actually do then? Should i post them on here (it doesn't bother me having my final year earnings on MSE)?

PlutoinCapricorn

Bev, most people on MSE think that the companies that claim tax refunds on your behalf are a disgrace, all the more if they lead you to believe that it is so difficult that it must be left to the experts. If some people just have not got the time to do it themselves, and are happy to lose 40%, that is fine.

However, it is very important to understand how tax works: it does involve some effort and you need to check the rates, bands, allowances each year as from April 6th, but once you have done that you can work it out for yourself. You can't afford not to understand how income tax is calculated, in my opinion.

People on here will be happy to help.

Bev._2

Well i have my figures. The thing is i don't actually know what to do with them. I'd like to (obviously), so here goes...

To start with i should point out i was a weekend worker for many years & went full time in late January 2003, which is when i'd have been *thinks* 19 (20 in the May).
All figures will go in the same format:: tax code, taxable income, tax paid, nat ins paid

2002/03: 461L // £4,877.08 (Taxable) // £25.70 (Tax Paid) // £149.74 (NI Paid)
2003/04: 461L // £11,323.46 // £1,225.38 // £744.49
2004/05: 474L // £16,960.34 // £2,444.02 // £1,345.03
2005/06: 489L // £18,385.73 // £2,716.12 // £1,488.23
2006/07: 503L // £14,128.92 // £1,741.58 // £1,079.80
2007/08: 522L (which at WK26 changed to 527L) // £11,309.55 / £1,058.78 // £750.26 (i think this is the year when i filled out that form i mentioned as i remember my tax code changing shortly after)
2008/09: 548L (which at WK12 changed to 549L & then at WK23 changed to 609L ... i've no idea why) // £12,860.42 // £1,352.00 // £851.70
2009/10: 653L // £17,365.94 // £2,165.20 // £1,291.60
2010/11: 653L // £18,657.58 // £2,423.60 // £1,429.93


So those are the figures. I don't know how important this bit is - but out of 112 consecutive weeks from December 2006, i had 51 of them signed off on the sick for various reasons.

How do i go about finding how to work out whether i've overpaid or not & how do i work it all out?
Is the fact that i've been repaid at some point likely to complicate things?

Bev._2

Bump-a-dump

chrismac1

I get tax payable of 1,239.78 for 03-04 and for all other years I agree to less than a penny, 03-04 is as far back as I go though.

Procrastinator333

Below will do the calcs for you......

http://listentotaxman.com/

Bev._2

Procrastinator333 wrote: »

Below will do the calcs for you......

http:// listentotaxman. com /

Thanks for this link.

I just picked a year at random. I chose 2008/09 as there were 2 tax code changes.

* Under 65
* Tax code 609L
* Gross income every [year] (although i'm paid weekly, but it varies) @ £12,860.42
* Hit the calculate button

So...

Tax due: £1,352.28 (ok, so it's only £0.28p more than i paid, big deal)
NI due: £816.80 (this is £34.90 LESS than what i actually paid).


Now at the moment i've only done this for 1 year as i'm wondering why there's this difference? As i say, my company are big swindlers.
I've often had to go up & question my pay - i'll be a half hour underpaid, or 3/4 hour underpaid & they then (usually, but not always) give my the mystery time back.
However i know of others who've been underpaid too. Lots of them. I also know most people don't check their clock card -vs- their payslips, so it seems like they'll be doing this to a lot of people each week which will save them a lot of money by the end of the year.
They do it less with me now that i've started checking my wage -vs- my payslip. Most people strangely can't be bothered to go up and see them over 1/2 hours underpay (yet they don't seem to understand that this can rapidly end up working a day for nothing).


So the cynic in me thinks that this difference of £30 may be in their back pocket.
Just wanted to ask why do you guys think this website shows a difference of £30 for one particular year?

jennifernil

If you are paid weekly, and your weekly amount varies, then the NI is calculated each week for that week. If you then look at it on an annual basis, I could see that it would not work out exactly the same.