Can they claim child tax credit overpayment 7 years later?

JAB3

I have just had a letter from the Tax office claiming I owe £1,106 for a child tax credit overpayment 7 years ago. I do not believeI owe this and why has it taken them 7 years to contact me?

Horseunderwater

The first thing you need to do is find the relevant years award notice and read it all through to see what it said - was your joint incomes correct, working hours correct, Child care right. Income declared right.
If that is as it should be, then ask them to tell you why they think that this has arrisen. Unfortunately - HMRC can go back as far as they wish to claim back things like this. Be grateful they do not add interest. If this relates to 2003/4 then I am not surprised as it seems lots of people had problems that year, myself included.

Icequeen99

Horseunderwater wrote: »

The first thing you need to do is find the relevant years award notice and read it all through to see what it said - was your joint incomes correct, working hours correct, Child care right. Income declared right.
If that is as it should be, then ask them to tell you why they think that this has arrisen. Unfortunately - HMRC can go back as far as they wish to claim back things like this. Be grateful they do not add interest. If this relates to 2003/4 then I am not surprised as it seems lots of people had problems that year, myself included.

Tax credit overpayments are subject to the Limitation Act though. So in theory it is possible HMRC couldn't recover that far back, in practice i haven't seen a case where it would apply.

OP - when did you stop getting tax credits on the same claim as the overpayment arose?

IQ