income tax & PPI refund

[Deleted User]

I was awarded a ppi refund of £48.74 by a firm called 'Shop Direct Finance Company Ltd' as a result of some mail order purchases that I'd made several years ago. However, when I received the cheque I found that they'd deducted £5.14 from the total, and paid it to HMRC on my behalf as 'income tax'.
Well my annual income places me well below the threshold of becoming liable for income tax payments, so presumably I can claim the £5.14 back from HMRC ... but how is this done?

I've looked on their website and found a list of criteria for reclaiming overpaid income tax, but none of the criteria are relevant to my situation (They list things such as 'redundancy payments'; 'lump sum from a pension' etc).

There's no point in phoning HMRC because of the length of time enquirers are left waiting to speak to an advisor ... the cost of the phone call would cancel out the £5.14 I'm trying to reclaim! I wrote to them over a month ago but they didn't reply.

Has anyone else had to deal with a similar situation?

NB: I know it probably seems OTT to make a fuss over £5.14, but existing on such a meagre income makes every £ valuable!

societys_child

Use tax form R40.


Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-claim-for-repayment-of-tax-deducted-from-savings-and-investments-r40