Trying to get tax refund from HMRC

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I'm trying to get a tax refund from HMRC. I'll provide as much detail as I can so you can help as best as you're able.

I resigned from my job and finished work in Oct 2019. Initially I was going to go on holiday but decided to return permanently to New Zealand (my home). I recently created a HMRC account and logged in. My dashboard told me I was due a tax refund of approx. £1000, because I hadn't worked the whole financial year (makes sense). Up to this time I had not received any communication from HMRC regarding a refund. It is possible letters were sent to my old address but of course I have not received them.

I still have a UK based Revolut account. I followed the HMRC online instructions to receive a refund direct into my Revolut account. When I get to the end of the short process I receive an error message 'Something has changed and you cannot use the online refund service at the moment.' It's not very useful because it doesn't tell me what went wrong and how to fix it.

I have a few thoughts.
1. Perhaps HMRC doesn't support payment into Revolut accounts? Although I think they do because I have found a few (but not many) posts online claiming people have received HMRC payments for other reasons into their Revolut accounts.
2. HMRC recently had problems with their online refunds but I got the impression that this was now fixed.
3. After digging around their website apparently HMRC will automatically send you a cheque, and this error message may be indicative of that. In that case it's gone to my old address and has been 'lost'.
4. Receiving a cheque overseas would be a big hassle and cost for me, I would prefer a straight bank transfer.

I don't really know how to contact HMRC to get these questions answered. Phoning them is probably out of the question, different time zone and very expensive.

Caz3121

Had you completed a P85 form?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-leaving-the-uk-getting-your-tax-right-p85
do you have a nominee?
"If you’re due a refund, we can either pay it to you or someone else on your behalf – known as a nominee.

We’ll send you a cheque to your address or to your nominee at their address. The cheque will be in British pounds and can only be paid into a bank account held in you or your nominee’s name.

To cash your cheque if you’re no longer in the UK you can:

• post it to your UK bank with a paying-in slip, if you have a UK bank account
• ask your overseas bank if they can cash the cheque (you may have to pay them a fee if they can)

HMRC will not pay any fees to convert your repayment into another currency, or to transfer it abroad."