Waiting On Tax Refund For Months

draddict

Hey all,

I was told when I did last year's self assessment that I was due a tax refund of £800. They said they sent it straight to my bank account and all was fine until I noticed that after 3 weeks it still hasn't hit my account.

Upon further investigation I realised that I had accidentally put in the correct bank account number for me but a different sort code. Same.bank, still my account but a different sort code to the correct account number.

I contacted my bank first who told me that the funds would just be returned to the HMRC I then called the HMRC right away and told them what had happened. They told me to write a letter to the treasury department, stating what had happened, the wrong and correct account details and my details and that it would take about 8 weeks to be sorted out. 

I called them after 6 weeks to make sure my letter had arrived. I was told it had and that I should get the refund in a couple of weeks. That was 6 weeks ago now and I have still had nothing.

I've called the HMRC since three times now and each time they tell me that there's a backlog and that the treasury department will get to me and that the funds hadn't been returned so they couldn't be reissued.

I contacted my bank who said they had no idea where the funds could be. I called HMRC again and they said they didn't know how else to help me and that I should try again in a week or so.

I'm getting nowhere and going round in circles. I can't talk to anyone in the treasury department and the bank aren't helpful either.

Any advice???

Thanks in advance!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Who are the "treasury department"??

Have you checked your Self Assessment account on gov.uk?  

You should be able to see from that if there is any progress i.e. a further refund has been issued.

GrumpyDil

Have you checked if the sort code/ account number are valid (https://www.sortcodes.co.uk/) 

If they are then it's entirely possible that the money has gone into someone else's account and unless HMRC are able to recover it you may struggle to get your money

draddict

Basically, I gave them the account from my current account and accidentally gave the sort code from another one of my accounts with the same bank, they are both on the app on my phone when I checked you see.

The Treasury Department are apparently the department that deal with repayments. Anytime I have called (about 9 times now) they have just told me to call back in a week and that they have sent a referral for me. They have sent about 9 now, surely there is a way for me to contact this department.

This doesn't seem right to me. Can I take it elsewhere? If so where?

GrumpyDil

Have you checked whether the account number and sort code are valid or not.

If it's a valid combination then hmrc will need to try and get the bank to recover the money and will need the recipient to agree to return the money.

If it's not a valid combination then it should have either gone into a suspense account or bounced back to HMRC.

Either way you are in HMRC's hands with resolving this. 

draddict

The account number was my own, the sort code was my ISA account, so when you type in both to the address given above it just says it's an ISA account.

p00hsticks

draddict said:

The account number was my own, the sort code was my ISA account, so when you type in both to the address given above it just says it's an ISA account.

So it's a valid ISA account, just not yours ? That would mean the money isn't going to automatically bounce back to HMRC, they're going to have to ask the recipient nicely if they wouldn't mind returning it.

Given that HMRC have paid out the money according to your own instructions, I can't see them re-issuing the payment unless and until they get the money back from whoever ended up with it.

GrumpyDil

Thanks p00hsticks. Took me a couple of goes to work that out.
OP, OK so the account number belonged to one of your accounts and the sort code to another account, but the combination returned on the check as a valid combination.
In that case as p00hsticks says HMRC will need to ask for the money to be returned to them and if the recipient refuses you may struggle to get it back.