Scammed by Entitlements Agency

Steh

a_loforese wrote: »

Hello you All,


19/06/17


Same thing happen to me just received cheque minus 40% commission plus VAT. what all of you mentioned previously it s happen to me, not aware I wasn't dealing with HMRC. They use same format of HMRC documents also same colour , pale green. Apparently they charges what they like,
Someone in the authority need to do something to stop this scam. We are all honest scammed citizen

Hi I have recently just got myself into.this mess too. Today infact. Seen.as your the most recent to be mislead canyou tell me what happens next? Ive filled put all the online forms and they say they could get me £600+. Am I right in thinking they will send me a cheque for pretty much half that? How.fast did all.this.happen for you? Does the cheque cash? In all honesty if they do send me £300 say im happy to just accept ive screwed up here.and lost £300+ in the process......an expensive lesson but would rather end the headache there. Can anyone tell me if the above was the case it would all be over after I cash the cheque and I can.just forget I ever made the mistake in the first place?

Dazed_and_confused

What exactly have you signed? With some of these companies it may not be an end to the matter, have you signed away any future tax refunds as well?

What if you realised you could claim a tax allowance you didn't previously know about and did this yourself have you signed something which means this company would be entitled to 40% of that as well even if they don't actually do any more work for it?

£600 is an unusually high amount, are you sure that is correct?

Once this is resolved you could always write to HMRC and tell them this company is no longer your tax advisor.

dori2o

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

What exactly have you signed? With some of these companies it may not be an end to the matter, have you signed away any future tax refunds as well?

What if you realised you could claim a tax allowance you didn't previously know about and did this yourself have you signed something which means this company would be entitled to 40% of that as well even if they don't actually do any more work for it?

£600 is an unusually high amount, are you sure that is correct?

Once this is resolved you could always write to HMRC and tell them this company is no longer your tax advisor.

D and C:

You cannot actually assign future tax years any more. HMRC started to enforce this rule rigourously from early 2016 onwards, and all of these companies should be aware of this fact.

In order for the assignment to be valid it must only apply to an in date tax year where the tax is actually deemed as paid which HMRC consider to be as of the end of the tax year.

Even the current tax year cannot be assigned until the year has ended, so after 5 April.

The only exception is where the taxpayer is making an in year cessation claim,I.e where they declare they will not be working again in the current tax year, or because they are leaving the UK.

Steh:

Have you actually signed anything?

A claim for repayment via one of these agents must contain a 'wet signature', as must the deed/letter of assignment.

The only exception is where you are only claiming flat rate expenses which can be given without signature, but still without a valid signature the deed/letter of assignment would be invalid.

With many of these companies you fill in the forms online, they then send you the completed documents for you to sign and either return to them, or they provide an envelope for you to send direct to HMRC.

If you have never provided a physical signature to them, or to HMRC in respect of this claim, then as yet you should be OK.

If you have signed something get on the phone to HMRC immediately (when they next open) and see if they have received the documents.

In terms of the Deed/Letter of assignment, HMRC consider it is valid only from the date it is received, not the date of signature. So if you call and it's not been received then you should be OK. Deal with the claim over the phone, and get HMRC to issue it to you.

The date of signature is only an issue should the claim form be post dated, I.e dated 6 April but received by HMRC in Mid March. Again this would render the assignment invalid.

There are 2 types of nomination when it comes to giving yor refund to an agent.

In the wording for Deeds/Letters of assignment it must state that you unconditionally assign the tax refund to the company. Without this wording appearing on the claim form the assignment would be invalid.

Assuming the assignment is valid then HMRC MUST abide by it and it cannot be cancelled for those years without a letter signed by both parties.

The 2nd nomination is whats called a Bare Nomination.

This is where you ask HMRC to send the payment to a 3rd party, but it is not legally binding.

With these you can call HMRC and ask for the payment to be issued to you.

Payment of the refund to the nominee in Bare Nomination cases is done entirely at HMRC's discretion and there are a number of reasons why HMRC might decline the nomination and issue the refund to the taxpayer.

However, it is likely that you will have signed a contract with the agent to agree to pay their fee's. If you were to call HMRC and tell them to ignore the bare nomination then there is every possibility that they could persue you through the courts for their fees.

I have seen it done.

To be honest, IMO, these companies do very little to justify their fees.

Very few of them act like true agents/tax accountants would.

They dont call to check the tax record, they dont check whether you've already received the tax relief you are looking to claim, they dont call to check your tax code, they dont do what real accountants do to ensure your tax planning is correct.

In the vast majority of cases they dont even check your claim form, and a few of them even encourage you to make claims for expenses that are not allowable in any circumstance.

So in a lot of cases they are charging you to use your own electric and broadband to fill in the form. Some are charging you to print off your own form, to provide the paper, ink, envelope and stamp, take the time to post the claim, and all they do is process your payment.

If your going to use an accountant, use a proper one who has the necessary qualifications and is registered with a governing body.

Alternatively, sign up for a Personal Tax Account online and submit a P87 online, download the form, follow the instructions, and send the form, or phone HMRC and deal with your claim with a telephone adviser.

HMRC charge no fee at all to deal with your claim.

dori2o

Just out of interest, has anyone assigned their refund to one of these companies in earlier years, but then found they have also claimed a 2016/2017 refund despite the fact you have not signed anything for 2016/2017?

If this has happened to you can I suggest you call HMRC immediately and discuss this with them. But you might also want to see if the company is registered with a financial Governing Body and complain to them, you might even consider getting some advice from somewhere like Action Fraud.

Porchia

It's not a reply but these people help@taxrebate.co.uk are scams. A warning to all. You don't need these people to claim your refund on your behalf and take 40% of it or in some cases take all of your hard earn money. I have always claimed my tax refund in all my life and never needed anyone to do it for me. I re-joined an employment agency in Jan 2016 had to rush in to sign a contract before I could start an urgent assignment. Signed documents thinking just for contract to start work and in between there were forms not knowing for these people tax rebate.co.uk (don't get them mix up with HRMC). Anywhere although I had claimed my refund myself this year, not knowing the agency whom I haven't worked for for over a year has sent these forms off to the tax rebate people and they have claimed my refund of £579. I had never heard of these people before till July when I telephoned the HRMC to find out how long before I received my refund to be told these people have claimed it. They gave me the email address to contact them which is help@taxrebate.co.uk. I contacted them and in the meantime I am To and fro with them and going to seek legal advise. After contacting them a few times, they then sent me letters and forms, another set of forms which they said I signed, another set of forms filled in typed which wasn't me not signed and letters attached which I have never received and was first time seeing them attached in the email. One letter stated please find enclosed £301 this is back in June 2017 and I have never seen this cheque at all, not even the letters came to my home. Someone is not quite right here. I am not going to let this drop as the agency had no right sending these forms off to these people when I hadn't worked for them for over one year. Those forms should have been shredded. Please note that I have never spoken to these people by form or by any correspondence before, I have never asked them for any forms to authorise them for any help. I tried phoning them this week 4th Aug 2017 for the first time and you get an answer phone. I left a message for Brendan to call me back and I am still waiting for a call. (some director on one of the document attached to my emails) and. This company is dodgy. There number is 0800 612 2804 avoid like the plague. If you want to claim your tax refund you either do nothing and you will be sent a cheque at the end of the tax year once all P60's are in to calculate how much tax you've paid or call the legit HRMC on 0300 200 3300 which is the one I had used to claim my refund then this company tax rebate sent in forms unknown to me and without my knowledge.

le_loup

Very helpful, I'm sure. But have you ever heard of paragraphs? They really help reading and comprehension.

00ec25

Porchia wrote: »

Someone is not quite right here.

yes, you have not understood how the process operates and, as you yourself admit, you signed forms in a rush without having understood what you were signing. The single most "not right" thing you could do.

Porchia wrote: »

I am not going to let this drop as the agency had no right sending these forms off to these people when I hadn't worked for them for over one year.

the agency had every right to send off forms you had willingly signed to state that you were happy for another company to provide the service to you which you had signed up for

Porchia wrote: »

Those forms should have been shredded. Please note that I have never spoken to these people by form or by any correspondence before, I have never asked them for any forms to authorise them for any help.

you were presented with forms that you willingly signed. The fact you did not understand there was no end date to the reclaim service you agreed to buy from the company is your fault.

the forms should not have been shredded, they remain valid until such time you instruct HMRC that the company is no longer your agent and all future refunds must be paid direct to you. There are loads of posts in this thread explaining that

the terms under which you can cancel the contract with the reclaim company itself will be set out in the contract you signed. You may or may not be penalised for cancelling "early" since we have no idea what is in the contract you signed.

Porchia wrote: »

This company is dodgy

please let us know how your libel case went

ShafTheMan

Hi, I received a letter from hmrc say I'm owed x amount of money. It says on the letter that they have sent the cheque off to the tax repayment agency. How did you get your money back? And how long did it take. Thank you

TM1976

The Entitlements Agency went into administration last year. If they owe you money you need to contact their insolvency practitioner IPD in Stoke.

http://www.ipd-uk.com/

I understand that since then they have been trading through a different company "The Tax Repayment Agency Limited".

When I see a post like this I usually think it's the fault of the poster who hasn't read the terms but this company actually don't state the terms anywhere but they do give their forms for download which assign the whole refund to "The Tax Repayment Agency Limited".

I can't see how this can be a legally binding contract and I'd advise anyone who downloaded the forms from "The Tax Repayment Agency Limited", completed and returned them to try to claim the whole amount back through the small claims court on the basis that no contract was entered into for them to be charged anything.

robatwork

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09217222/officers

About Us
We Work on a no win no fee basis to claim legimate tax repayments from HMRC.

Our goal is to keep developing new services so that we can offer help to more people in more ways.


That's it for About us. Can't even spell legitimate which is probably because they aren't.