HMRC says they are unable to repay my tax

JamesHetherington

I am owed £2,393.01 in overpaid tax - both of which relate to tax that was overpaid during two financial years (I was put on a BR code). The first payment (£1,020.20) should have been processed within 10 working days after I submitted my tax return on August 31.

However, HMRC now says I will not be able to receive my tax rebate. They say the matter has been referred to my 'local tax office' - the nearest of which appears to be in Wales (I'm in London).

They won't help me at all. I can't phone them because their phone line is constantly busy and I have tried writing to them but I never get a reply. I keep pressing the 'request a repayment' button on my online self assessment, typing my bank details before it says 'your repayment request will be processed as soon as possible', only for it to revert back 48 hours later. I have made about 40 repayment requests to this date!!

I am having to fork out £1,500 to fund a course I am finishing this year with the Open University. However, I am not eligible for any loans (only a limited amount of financial assistance is available) and I desperately need this money to paid for my fees.

I just don't know what to do. I am so angry that I can't even find words to describe how I feel. If I don't receive this money I could be in serious, serious trouble. I am already overdrawn because I paid the first lot of my fees (£800) earlier, since I was expecting this tax to be repaid my now. I am studying full time and can only work part time as a result.

I included every ounce of information I could find for my tax return - every single payment, invoice, employer (since I work freelance with various clients), agency, BACS payment etc...

I would be so grateful if any of you could come up with some suggestions to force HMRC to give me what is rightfully mine.

antonic

JamesHetherington wrote: »

I am owed £2,393.01 in overpaid tax - both of which relate to tax that was overpaid during two financial years (I was put on a BR code). The first payment (£1,020.20) should have been processed within 10 working days after I submitted my tax return on August 31.

Have HMRC confirmed this amount is due ?

However, HMRC now says I will not be able to receive my tax rebate. They say the matter has been referred to my 'local tax office' - the nearest of which appears to be in Wales (I'm in London).

The repayment has been referred for security checks (or as a cynic would say to delay payment)

They won't help me at all. I can't phone them because their phone line is constantly busy and I have tried writing to them but I never get a reply. I keep pressing the 'request a repayment' button on my online self assessment, typing my bank details before it says 'your repayment request will be processed as soon as possible', only for it to revert back 48 hours later. I have made about 40 repayment requests to this date!!

HMRC will ignore repeated requests as a nuisance

I am having to fork out £1,500 to fund a course I am finishing this year with the Open University. However, I am not eligible for any loans (only a limited amount of financial assistance is available) and I desperately need this money to paid for my fees.

Should you have committed to this BEFORE knowing when the refund would be made ?

I just don't know what to do. I am so angry that I can't even find words to describe how I feel. If I don't receive this money I could be in serious, serious trouble. I am already overdrawn because I paid the first lot of my fees (£800) earlier, since I was expecting this tax to be repaid my now. I am studying full time and can only work part time as a result.

I included every ounce of information I could find for my tax return - every single payment, invoice, employer (since I work freelance with various clients), agency, BACS payment etc...

I would be so grateful if any of you could come up with some suggestions to force HMRC to give me what is rightfully mine.

Contact your MP and get him/her to complain on your behalf, HMRC d/w MP complaints a hell of a lot quicker than other complaints.

chrismac1

At the same time, make a formal complaint to HMRC with an envelope headed COMPLAINT CASE and put this in the header of your letter too. I've had some good results from this including - in the end - over £200 compensation for one client for the extra time I spent because of their idiotic bumbling.

System

Yes, HMRC are often slow to respond, but most people seam to get early refunds when using the online system, so you need to ask yourself if you have done something which may have caused the delay.

I'm not sure, but I would think that repeated pressing of the "request a repayment" link on the HMRC online system, would cause you problems rather than solving anything, you said you have made 40 repayment requests to date - either you are exaggerating or you need to think of a better way to communicate with HMRC. It is possible that the repeated requests that you have made is what has actually added to the delay and could be the reason why your request has ended up being referred to the local tax office.

Letters to HMRC often take anything from 3 to 12 weeks to be processed, a little patience when you first submitted the request may have been better adviced, but it may be too late now

Telephone lines could be busy at certain times of the day, but I have phoned many times in the past year and have never failed to speak to HMRC.

Often times, if we approach things in a calm methodical manner, then we get good results, a more manic approach can cause misunderstandings and delays. (This goes for tax payers and for HMRC too)

chrismac1

I've encountered "security checks" on 3 clients in the past year. In 1 case HMRC had completely confused the client with someone completely different - an accountancy partner would you believe! In the other 2 cases i am still none the wiser as to why there was a delay.

In ALL 3 cases it was Jobsworth City Arizona. No-one would take any action to sort the problem, it was clear the matter was in the long grass. One suddenly got paid. In the other 2 cases I raised a complaint case. Strangely enough, shortly after the complaints went it someone rang me up from HMRC to see what could be done, and a few weeks later both clients were paid up.

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

JamesHetherington wrote: »

I keep pressing the 'request a repayment' button on my online self assessment, typing my bank details before it says 'your repayment request will be processed as soon as possible', only for it to revert back 48 hours later. I have made about 40 repayment requests to this date!!

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - A. Einstein

chrismac1

I symathise with the OP on the "request a repayment" front, this is yet another rubbish screen design from HMRC. I have a mate who is working on the HMRC database and I am feeding him lots of tips on how to improve it, let's hope he gets the chance!

In this case, when you log in it shows you the repayment is available and invites you to request it. So the OP was simply following the on screen advice. What has happened is someone in HMRC has blocked this request - naturally no-one has thought to link this block back to the repayment request screen.

sarahk100574

They are holding up repayments for all sorts of strange so-called 'reasons' at the mo... these repayments are being directed through 'security'... quite why or even where this 'security' is, no-one at HMRC that I speak to, seems to know!

You mention that you were on a BR tax code, yet that you were also SE?? I would imagine that as you don't fit neatly into a taxpayer box ( either SE or an employee on Paye) your tax return has been placed on the 'too difficult' pile...

If you are 100% sure that you are owed the repayment, and that you have no other tax outstanding then go ahead and complain - LOUDLY!! As Chris (?) above said, this does tend to work!!

Also, your tax office is not really in Wales, but HMRC have centralised all of its 'customer contact centres' to make life more difficult for everyone lol! if you have no joy on the phone, just pop into your nearest tax office and speak to someone there if poss, I know I can still do this in Leeds/York when necessary, and again it usually works!!

Good Luck!

Edit - Just re-read the OP, and saw that you only submitted at end of August? - I am assuming you mean August 2011, as opposed to 2010?! (which wouldn't suprise me these days!) Way too early for a lot of perfectly routine repayments just yet.... it will probs be a few more weeks yet, but try complaining loudly anyway!!

NeverEnough

I applied for a refund of personal tax overpaid back in Feb 2011 - it arrived last week via cheque just on 8 months after I applied- very welcome as it was substantial, but not exactly dealt with in a timeous manner........dragging their feet comes to mind.....

JamesHetherington

Thank-you for the advice everyone.

It may be a little excessive to submit 40 repayment requests, although at first I tried to submit smaller repayment requests (like £200, £500) to see if HMRC was only applying security checks to larger requests. But sadly this didn't seem to work!

I just wish they would tell me what was wrong with my tax return. Then I could rectify the problem (if there is one).

Basically I have been working freelance while working in a contract job, so I have been self-employed while being employed in a contract.

I have thought about contacting the foreign number for HMRC (I assume it is less busy) because this may be cheaper, since my international calls from my mobile are 7p a minute. I don't have a landline which is a real pain.

So I guess the only thing to do now is to get my local MP involved.

beaujolais-nouveau

JamesHetherington wrote: »

So I guess the only thing to do now is to get my local MP involved.

And use the magic word "hardship".