Making a claim for income tax that you are owed

paulb99

I'm a newbie - so apologies if this has been covered recently. I have searched but couldn't find anything.

A friend of mine who works at the revenue was helping me fill out my tax return last night. She asked me whether or not I had asked the inland revenue whether I was due any refunds for income tax over the last 6 years.

When I replied 'no' she said she would check when she went into work today. Apparently I am owed £488 from the tax year 02/03 in overpaid income tax! It suddenly dawned on me that there had been a mix up during that year and I had assumed that the revenue automatically corrected their mistakes. I am told otherwise, you need to ask them to check!

She went on to say there are plenty of companies out there that will claim this money back and take a cut of between 10 - 70% of the refund.

But, as I found out, it is simply a matter of contacting you tax office and asking them to check.

More details are here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/ReclaimingTax/ReclaimingTaxArticles/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=10013075&chk=4gMY4J

Paul

Hoddie_2

Your friend is actually breaking the law by viewing your records and risks losing their job (and possible prosecution). I hope that if your addresses are similar (ie same street or postcode) that they didn't use function BG to view your records.

paulb99

Hoddie wrote:

Your friend is actually breaking the law by viewing your records and risks losing their job (and possible prosecution). I hope that if your addresses are similar (ie same street or postcode) that they didn't use function BG to view your records.

Thanks for your concern Hoddie, i'm quite sure no wrong doing has been done here. She asked a colleague to check my records.

It's worth bearing in mind though - it would be quite easy to get people into serious grief.

Paul

Hoddie_2

She asked a colleague to check my records.

Which is also breaking the law I'm afraid! Chances are that your friend won't be caught, particularly if she used a colleague's login. but plenty of naive HMRC employees have lost their jobs over cases just such as this. It would have been far safer to give you the right telephone number to call!

paulb99

Ok fair enough. I not sure how they could be breaking the law if somebody else is accessing the records?

Hoddie_2

HMRC employees are not allowed to access or view their own records, or records belonging to friends, relatives, neighbours or colleagues. To do so is gross misconduct and a sackable offence, and carries the risk of prosecution.

If you were to call HMRC and your friend answered the phone, they would have to pass you on to someone else to deal with.

Engaging someone else to use the keyboard doesn't make it any less of an issue, although it does make it harder for it to be traced.

paulb99

Ok point taken. I'll be more careful which friends I recruit in future.

Back on topic though, from this and your other posts you sound like you work for HMRC. Is this common for people to be owed this type of refund, and is it really as easy as making the call to the tax office?

Paul

ManAtHome

A friend of mine has just been refunded 6 years of overpaid tax (wrong code used by employer), so they must do some checks (and yes, I have seen the forms and the cheque, not an urban myth).

ps - this was "out of the blue" - no claim made.

Hoddie_2

It depends what you mean by common. They certainly do collect more tax through PAYE than necessary, but most is automatically refunded following the annual reviews. It's only where they're unsure whether they have the full story that they don't do so automatically, and in these circumstances they would normally write to the taxpayer for clarification. However, they will only do this once and if the letter is lost/never delivered/ignored, as far as they're concerned that's the end of the matter (unless and until the taxpayer enquires).

As for whether it's just as easy as making a call, in many cases yes. It could be that there's a lengthy gap in the employment record and they want to know what happened during that period before they release any repayment. It could be innocent in that the person was in education, or claimed a non-taxable benefit, or was on long-term sick or maternity leave. It could, however, be completely the opposite - working cash in hand or for an employer who doesn't file their paperwork and pay their dues, etc.

Hoddie_2

I'll be more careful which friends I recruit in future.

It's not a slight on your friend that they wanted to help - exactly the opposite by the sounds of it. But your tax records may hold a lot of information, everything from your marital status (past and present) to the income you've had to the benefits you've claimed, including former names and addresses.