Claiming Back Tax on Savings whilst not working

BargainJunky

I will try to be brief .....

I started maternity leave in Jan 04 and did not return to work as planned in Jan 05 - took redundancy instead. Can I claim back the tax paid on savings etc and if yes how do I do it (I'm led to believe that its possible and that I can go back 5 years).

I started back to work in Jan 07 so if I can claim I should be able to claim for tax year 04/05 and 05/06 and possibly 06/07.

Thanks for reading.

bye_bye_band_G

You can claim tax back on savings interest for all those years yes, up to your personal tax-free allowance, presumably £5035 for 2006/07. In fact if your total income is more than that you would also benefit from the fact that the next £2150 of income, savings or earned, should be at 10%, not 20%, which your savings will have been taxed at, and they will refund you the difference there too.
Ask your local tax office for form R40. Send it back after the end of the tax year you're claiming for with details of all the interest you recieved. These days you don't need to send them 'certificates of tax deducted', but keep them handy in case they ask for more information. Usually a list of your savings accounts with amounts received is enough, and they will usually send a cheque out to you within a month or so.