Problems with a tax rebate

gj87

Hello everyone.

I'm looking for a bit of advice on tax rebates - hope I'm posting in the right place.

In Feb 2012 I applied for a rebate for the year 2011-12 - I had overpaid tax by about £680 through PAYE. I only worked from April - October, when I started a course that gives me a tax-free stipend for rent/food/travel etc.

I've chased HMRC over the phone a few times. The call centre can tell me literally nothing, except that one one phone call, they told me that I'd underpaid for the year 2010-11 and owed them about £150, and that it was to be paid by April 2012. Complete news to me. They sent me a letter to confirm this, and have put a note on my account to say that the two will be worked out against each other when I finally get my rebate.

To cut a long (and slightly more complicated with regards to years 2010-11 and 2011-12 employment status) story short... I'm still waiting. Every phone call I make is followed up by HMRC sending me a letter apologising for the delay. I could really, really do with having this money back - is nearly 4 months a 'normal' amount of time to wait for a rebate? Are there reasons why it can take so long? Is there anything I can do to help it along?! I am starting to look for employment and am concerned that all the necessary paperwork that I'll need to get my tax codes for this year (P60 etc) are currently in posession of HMRC!

Thanks in advance for your help - hope this message makes sense!

McKneff

You dont need any paperwork if you start a new job.

All you need to do is complete a P46 from your employer or you can download one yourself for the day you start.

The HMRC are notoriosly slow and there is no speeding them up unfortunately.

Im due a refund from 11/12 and I was told it would be June/July before I would be sent a cheque.
Its just a case of waiting I'm afraid.

gj87

Hi

Thanks for replying - glad to know it's fairly standard to wait (well, not glad, but you know what I mean)! Think I was just a bit worried that I'd not given them all the paperwork, would get a letter to tell me in 6 months, and therefore would go to the back of the queue to restart the process!

McKneff

The trouble is, they probably didnt even action it until after the tax year end ie April 5th.

Hope you dont have to wait too long.

Nothing to stop yu giving them a ring for a progress report every couple of weeks.

Trick to ringing them, go on the Saynoto0870 website, get a generic no. I think its the 0161 no. (for me its free after 7pm) but before you ring, put in 141 so they dont know where you are ringing from. If they say anything just say your phone is set up to not being able to use 0845 numbers, cheeky but it works.

Permanently_confused

Hi,

I had a similar problem with having money owed back to me for one tax year and HMRC saying I owed money from underpayment of tax for another tax year.

Whilst it is infuriating to have to wait, providing you stay in contact on a regular-ish basis to show that you do care about what is going on, they are pretty good if you have a situation where what you owe them outweighs what they owe you and you can ask to pay back bit by bit (it looks like you don't have that situation but just in case!).

As for long waits, I recieved in the post yesterday morning a cheque for a tax rebate from 2006/7. Only took five years!

Good luck with everything

gj87

Five years! I hope you got some interest on that!

I'll keep badgering them. Thanks for your input everyone!