Unison Membership Tax Rebate

BeeKayBee

Good morning

Please bear with me, I've not posted on the site before and I'm pretty clueless when it comes to money too!

Recently I recieved a letter that said I could be entitled to a tax rebate on the Unison Membership I had.

I filled the form out and sent it off. Today I have recieved an email from 'mel@taxrebates' asking me to follow a link and provide additional information. I wasn't sure whether it was a legitimate email so I googled the name first.

After reading some threads on this site I'm now aware that they deduct 40% of any tax that is refunded. So I have a few questions:

1. Has anyone had a tax rebate on a union membership?
2. Is it easy to do without using a middle man?
3. Is it actually worth it? I was paying £11ish per month over 3 or 4 years before cancelling my Unison membership.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any replies!

booksurr

Firstly you can only claim if you were employed within the health sector. If you were a member of unison and working anywhere else then you cannot claim at all
Health sector means: Nursing, Ambulance, Voluntary, Professional & Technical A, Professional & Technical B, Senior and General Managers.
HMRC set these rules - here is the list of approved bodies. Unison is listed under "U" http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/list3/index.htm

Next tax relief is given because you are maintaining your professional knowledge through subscribing to your professional body. Unison is a special case in that it is primarily a union defending its members rights rather than an educational standards body. Therefore an element (30%) of your subscription is deemed to relate to "union" activity rather than "professional" activity. So the bottom line is you can only claim for 70% of the actual cost of your sub https://www.unison.org.uk/documents/176

thirdly you get tax relief not what you actually paid so you only get back the tax you paid

your monthly sub was £11. Clearly that is £132 per year of which only 70% is eligible and on that salary you are a 20% basic rate taxpayer so: 132 x 70% = 92.40 x 20% = £18.48. You would get a cash rebate of £18.48 for a fuill year's contribution of £132. Surely £18 is worth the price of a postage stamp?

to claim you simply write directly to your tax office (address on your payslip or ask employer) and claim. HMRC will work out the rebate so all you need do is tell them how much you paid, that is was a Unison sub and where you worked.
Note there is a rolling deadline for claiming and as at now you cannot claim for any payments made before April 2010., ie you can claim payments made in the current tax year (14/15) and the previous 4 tax years 10/11, 11/12, 12/13, 13/14

do not use a middleman - all they do is write the letter for you and pocket a % for so doing. The process is exactly the same as claiming for the costs of washing a uniform, you may find this thread helpful: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/27967

MSE also provide a guide which includes a checklist in respect of uniform washing claims. Your letter for a subscription would be similar http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/uniform-tax-rebate?_ga=1.171254368.198220393.1403675155

BeeKayBee

Thank you, you've no idea how helpful your reply is!