Marriage Tax Allowance

Dunwell

Hello,

My husband started a marriage tax allowance claim through an advert on facebook, he filled in all his details and then asked me to fill mine in, I barely filled any of my details in before realising it wasn't a gov website.  Upon googling the company we just came off the website without completing my details or submitting the form.  We didn't get any communications from this company so thought that was it and I made an application through the government website in December.  My husband then received an e-mail from this company asking for us to prove our identity but we ignored it thinking they were just trying their luck as we hadn't completed the form or clicked submit.

I rang HMRC today to see how far the application progress was and if we were expecting a rebate for the previous tax year to be told that a company has already claimed the check for that tax year! HMRC have said they have a letter with mine and my husbands signatures on to give this company permission to claim the refund on our behalf.  We absolutely have not signed anything at all, HMRC are posting us a copy of this letter so we can see the signatures.  Is there anything I can do before we receive the copy of the letter with the signatures? 

We have tried contacting the company that has claimed the refund however none of the phone numbers work that I could find so we have e-mailed them.  I have an address for them so I could always send a letter to them too.

Is there anything else I can do, as we absolutely did not submit our details, we just shut the web page down, and we 100% have not signed anything?

Jeremy535897

I suggest you wait to see the form HMRC sends you before doing anything else, so you can see what signatures are on it.

Dunwell

Jeremy535897 said:

I suggest you wait to see the form HMRC sends you before doing anything else, so you can see what signatures are on it.

Thanks, the company have now responded to my e-mail with a copy of the letter attatched, stating that we signed it. The signatures in no way reflect our actual signatures. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

If this company have notified HMRC that they are acting as your agent/accountant then the first thing would be to notify HMRC that you no longer wish HMRC to send your tax details to them (this would apply to both of you).

Getting your husbands refund is probably going to be more difficult?

Dunwell

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

If this company have notified HMRC that they are acting as your agent/accountant then the first thing would be to notify HMRC that you no longer wish HMRC to send your tax details to them (this would apply to both of you).

Getting your husbands refund is probably going to be more difficult?

We notified them yesterday but they said the check had already been issued to them in January. So it’s looking like it’s going to be a lot more difficult (luckily the one for this tax year came back in his wages at the end of last month, but it’s still the full £250 for the previous year that this company have got hold of) and we’re just trying to work out what route to go down, we’re obviously also quite concerned that this company have got quite a few of our details on record without us actually submitting the form and have already forged our signatures. 

unholyangel

Dunwell said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

If this company have notified HMRC that they are acting as your agent/accountant then the first thing would be to notify HMRC that you no longer wish HMRC to send your tax details to them (this would apply to both of you).

Getting your husbands refund is probably going to be more difficult?

We notified them yesterday but they said the check had already been issued to them in January. So it’s looking like it’s going to be a lot more difficult (luckily the one for this tax year came back in his wages at the end of last month, but it’s still the full £250 for the previous year that this company have got hold of) and we’re just trying to work out what route to go down, we’re obviously also quite concerned that this company have got quite a few of our details on record without us actually submitting the form and have already forged our signatures. 

Do they have a governing body?

Does the date on the deed/application match the date you visited their site? I presume it's the same company that you visited and not a new, unrelated one. 

Is the deed a valid one, in accordance with HMRCs guidance on it? 
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye91040#IDAEIM1H

etienneg

If, as you say, they have forged your signatures, that is a criminal offence. So I would be reporting it to the police (or Action Fraud) in order to obtain a crime number, which you could supply to HMRC. I'm not suggesting for a moment that the police/AF will investigate this low value crime, or that you will get anything helpful beyond the crime number. But it is a good way of demonstrating your lack of involvement. HMRC may (note: may, not will) take note of the company involved in case they receive further enquiries such as yours about the same company. In other words, it's the best you can do for society as a good citizen.

Now, I'm not in any way implying that this next bit applies to you - it's just a general statement. Anyone reporting something to the police/AF that is not true, or that includes or implies things that are not true (for example, exaggeration) should expect themselves to become the object of criminal proceedings. This is why, at least in the first instance, others can take seriously such a report.

Dunwell

unholyangel said:

Dunwell said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

If this company have notified HMRC that they are acting as your agent/accountant then the first thing would be to notify HMRC that you no longer wish HMRC to send your tax details to them (this would apply to both of you).

Getting your husbands refund is probably going to be more difficult?

We notified them yesterday but they said the check had already been issued to them in January. So it’s looking like it’s going to be a lot more difficult (luckily the one for this tax year came back in his wages at the end of last month, but it’s still the full £250 for the previous year that this company have got hold of) and we’re just trying to work out what route to go down, we’re obviously also quite concerned that this company have got quite a few of our details on record without us actually submitting the form and have already forged our signatures. 

Do they have a governing body?

Does the date on the deed/application match the date you visited their site? I presume it's the same company that you visited and not a new, unrelated one. 

Is the deed a valid one, in accordance with HMRCs guidance on it? 

I haven’t been able to find a governing body for them.

The date is a few days after we visited the site, it matches all the criteria apart from 

“The individual entitled to the repayment must physically sign the letter or deed, an electronic or e-mail signature will not be accepted.”

We absolutely have not physically signed anything and the signatures look nothing like our real signatures. We haven’t received anything in the post from them, only an e-mail asking us to confirm our identity a month after the ‘application was made’

Dunwell

etienneg said:

If, as you say, they have forged your signatures, that is a criminal offence. So I would be reporting it to the police (or Action Fraud) in order to obtain a crime number, which you could supply to HMRC. I'm not suggesting for a moment that the police/AF will investigate this low value crime, or that you will get anything helpful beyond the crime number. But it is a good way of demonstrating your lack of involvement. HMRC may (note: may, not will) take note of the company involved in case they receive further enquiries such as yours about the same company. In other words, it's the best you can do for society as a good citizen.

Now, I'm not in any way implying that this next bit applies to you - it's just a general statement. Anyone reporting something to the police/AF that is not true, or that includes or implies things that are not true (for example, exaggeration) should expect themselves to become the object of criminal proceedings. This is why, at least in the first instance, others can take seriously such a report.

Thank-you, our initial thought was to report to action fraud, but we were unsure if we’d get anywhere with them, we’ll wait on a copy of the letter to arrive from HMRC then we have the ‘evidence’ of the signatures not been ours and report them. 

sheramber

Could you take them to the small claims court for the money?