How long does Stamp Duty Refunds take?

Marcus-H_2

Anyone know the current payment timeline?

Submitted my refund in last week of August.
Got an email receipt saying "You’ll normally receive a response within 35 days."

Not heard a thing & now into over 45 days (& 35 business days).

Tried calling the helpline number, but they have no idea as payments are by another department who are not contactable by phone.

*rant* Bet if i had paid it late they be fining me & charging me interest.

00ec25

is this a refund of higher rate SDLT?

if so then your response is a bit "odd" given the timescale HMRC itself lists:
Q33.
How long will take for the refund to be paid?
A33.
HMRC aims to process all repayment requests within 15 working days. This assumes that you provide HMRC with all the information we need upfront. The repayment request form, which is available on GOV.UK, sets out all the information that HMRC will need to process a repayment. Link to form:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stamp-duty-land-tax-apply-for-arepayment-of-the-higher-rates-for-additional-properties.
Q34.
Will I be paid compensation if the refund takes longer than 15 working days?
A34.
HMRC does not pay compensation if a refund takes longer than 15 days. However, you will be entitled to interest on the amount paid, which will be included automatically in the repayment.

Marcus-H_2

Yes
Bought before my sale went through so got hit with the extra 3%
Submitted online once sale went through & was advised it takes 35 days! Now upto near 50 days and over 35 business days. Certainly a lot longer than the Q&A

Marcus-H_2

cheque turned up today with a little extra for interest (not much!) - just incase anyone finds this thread looking for the same info.
Took 40 business days

dgmelton

Hi
I applied for a refund in Jun, yes June. I did receive a chance but it was for 10x the amount it should be, they cancelled that and guess what after 3 complaints and nearly 5 months I am still waiting, no one owns it, no one progresses it I am just told they have too much work and I can ring again in another 10 business working days, when they say exactly the same thing. I have put in official complaints and I get told they agree it’s appauling but to ring again in 10 days. I’m at my wits end they are completely incompetent, and I need my refund.

Nancyboo

I submitted my claim mid September 2017 called HMRC today (day 40) and they said call back in December if I haven’t received refund by end of November. The lack of communication is appalling. They told me on email should be processed in 35 days, and today they said they aim to settle refunds in 55 days. I am sure HMRC are gaining shed loads of interest on our hard earned money.

Furqan

I gave them a call earlier today (16th Nov), 55 working days is the current estimated time to process refunds.

00ec25

Nancyboo wrote: »

I am sure HMRC are gaining shed loads of interest on our hard earned money.

since you are sure please provide the evidence

£1 million pounds at 1% interest produces £27 per day interest, shed loads indeed.

a "standard sized" 8ft by 6ft shed is roughly 8 cubic metres by volume. A £1 coin is roughly 0.00000452 cubic metres by volume so a "shed load" would require 1.7 million £1 coins.
At £27 earned per 1 million invested, it would require £1.7M/27 = 66,962 x £1m = 63 trillion £ of investments to generate a shed load, ie the national debt

a somewhat OTT allegation

pewe

We will be applying for our refund next week.

We were originally told it would take 15 days for them to refund, but reading the comments here I hope that if it does take over 15 days that the interest they pay will cover the cost of the loan we took out to make the original payment - but that's probably wishful thinking.

Certain organisations get away with being a law unto themselves - like our purchasers solicitor who promised to undertake certain actions 'tomorrow' and then took 13 days to do it - costing us £1000 extra for our bridging loan whilst we waited for them to get their finger out.
Unfortunately, we have no recourse for compensation as they 'were not acting for us'.

robtweed1955

I applied on 29 September. Repayment was approved, but on 24 October they decided there was some "technical issue" that they needed to investigate - no further information was available from them, so I've no idea what kind of issue it is.

55 working days passed without payment arriving or any further information from HMRC about the nature of the issue or when I could expect payment. I lodged a complaint and was told I would receive a reply within 48 hours. That time elapsed without a call back from HMRC. I called to find out why nobody had called me, only to be told that because their systems had been down for 3 hours or so, I'd need to wait a further 24 hours.

I'm tearing my hair out now - nobody you can talk to at HMRC seems capable of doing anything but apologising. You can't be put through to anyone who might actually know something and have the authority to make anything happen. It's an utter disgrace. I had to give them the money on the button when purchasing the property, but getting my money back from them is almost impossible it seems.

I'm still none the wiser what the "technical issue" that caused the hold-up was and where they are in terms of resolving it, and apparently no closer to getting my refund.

pewe

I had a similar problem with them earlier this year when a tax refund kept getting 'lost'.
Turned out it was subject to a 'spot check' by their fraud department and nobody knew.

They are a bit of a joke now since the government cut back their funding.