HMRC asking me to repay from a rebate

dixon2094

Hi,

Back in March 2020, I was referred to a tax rebate company, Fast Tax Rebates (FTR), from a friend who told me they could help submit a claim to recover tax back on what I had paid over the 3 years - 17/18, 18/19, 19/20. I was given their contact email address, filled in a preset number of questions, and sent it off.

The process was, that I allow them access to my Government Gateway account, and provide them with tax returns and p60s so that their accountants could submit the claim. After emails and text messages back and forth, the claim got submitted and then around £3000 was paid out. FTR kept around 70% and I received around 30%, which was just over £1000.

A month ago from now (around a year later from the original claim submission), I received a letter in the post from HMRC saying they were investigating a tax rebate claim submitted by me for EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) relief. Obviously, I had no idea what this is or what they were referring to until I read on and saw FTR's name. I gathered that whatever FTR had submitted on my behalf, wasn't what they said it was and I wasn't even eligible in the first place. I emailed HMRC using the contact details on the letter and explained it all, only to get a response saying that since it was submitted under my name, I'm 100% liable, regardless of who the "nominated" party was. I have until the end of June to repay I believe. HMRC is expecting me to pay back the full £3000, even though I only received a third of the total claim amount. The HMRC agent was quite sympathetic and explained this has happened to 100s if not 1000s of people, but at the end of the day, it's under my name.

I have full email threads and text message threads with FTR which I provided to HMRC too. Within them, there is no mention of EIS and nothing which shows I had any idea what it is or what it was. Looking back over the emails and texts, FTR was actually quite bullish, which on reflection, should've been a red flag. But, I was referred by a friend, and was under the impression I had a valid claim, or how else would they be able to successfully conduct a rebate claim.

I've tried reaching out to solicitors and they all say that I should pursue corporate litigation or something similar, however, they all say their costs outweigh the potential claim amount. One of them even recommended asking here, so here I am.

Any advice or points in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Apologies for the long post.

Dale

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Your best option for the £3,000 is to try and make an arrangement to pay it back over a (realistic) period of time.

Why did you think you were due a refund in the first place? 

dixon2094

To be honest, after being referred by a good friend who had successfully had the claim submitted, and due to the current situation regarding COVID at the time (I made contact at the end of March 2020) and all the news about tax rebates from working at home flying around, grants, SEISS, etc, I didn't do too much due-diligence, and now I'm suffering. I presume that's the co-tails they were riding on.

Surely, however, they had been obligated to inform me what the scheme was and how it worked - at that point, I'd have backed out or at least knew something was up, due to not even owning my own business, etc, to be eligible.

Keep_pedalling

You should be perusing FTR for the return of of their extortionate commission. But chances are the the sharks will have spent your money and be long gone. 

Jeremy535897

There are a number of issues of concern here. Your post suggests you had already filed tax returns for the year in question, so presumably when FTR made the claims on your behalf, they were submitting amended returns, but using your government gateway login details to do so, rather than acting as your agent?

You must have signed something to have HMRC pay the refund to FTR rather than you. What does it say? Is there any risk that FTR could seek to make further claims using your login details, and receive further refunds?

The way you describe things suggests that FTR submitted amended tax returns that resulted in repayments that were never due. That would, from what you say, appear to be fraudulent. You may face not only a bill for the £3,000 tax wrongly reclaimed, and interest at 2.6% a year on top, but a penalty as well.

dixon2094

I've not signed any document. No agreement, no signature - other than giving authority over email to say "yes, happy for you to submit a claim on my behalf" - although, the claim was for something in which wasn't explained to me by them and I was misinformed.

You can search companies house for FTR (I can't post links on here yet): FAST TAX REBATES LTD
Company number: 12033598

I understand the Director, Alan, (who resigned today), is also involved in a few more tax companies, and a new Director for FTR was also appointed on 8th June (today) so surely it's still operating.

Surely there's something I can do to combat this whole situation? Whether it's claiming against FTR or Alan himself as Director at the time, or the new Director, etc? £3000 is a lot of money to be paying when:

a) I only received 1/3 originally anyway, and
2) when I had been misinformed about what was happening

dixon2094

Jeremy535897 said:

There are a number of issues of concern here. Your post suggests you had already filed tax returns for the year in question, so presumably when FTR made the claims on your behalf, they were submitting amended returns, but using your government gateway login details to do so, rather than acting as your agent?

You must have signed something to have HMRC pay the refund to FTR rather than you. What does it say? Is there any risk that FTR could seek to make further claims using your login details, and receive further refunds?

The way you describe things suggests that FTR submitted amended tax returns that resulted in repayments that were never due. That would, from what you say, appear to be fraudulent. You may face not only a bill for the £3,000 tax wrongly reclaimed, and interest at 2.6% a year on top, but a penalty as well.

It was never explained to me how they operate or what they were actually applying for. Only that they could "get me a rebate on tax I had paid the previous 3 years".

The letter from HMRC explains EIS so it must be something to do with that, whether that involves submitting amended returns...?

unholyangel

When you say access to your government gateway, do you mean you had to authorise them? Or that they actually asked for your user ID, password and got you to send them an activation code? 

Ultimately you're liable to HMRC. If the agent has a professional body membership (ACCA, ICAS, ICAEW etc) then you should be able to complain to them if the agent doesn't deal with your complaint satisfactorily. 

If no professional body then you'd need to take action against them, and hope they have the funds/assets to pay you if you win. 

Jeremy535897

I am baffled by the whole story. Normally you appoint an agent by signing a 64-8 (New), or by receiving a code to appoint them online. In neither case do they need access to your government gateway account. They use their own as agent. HMRC regard the use by agents of a taxpayer's own government gateway account as wholly unacceptable (they made a specific point about this regarding SEISS). But if you signed nothing, and they did use your government gateway account, how did they have the repayment assigned to them, and how did HMRC know to mention FTR in their letter to you?

I don't know what their terms and conditions are, but if they claimed a rebate for you that was not due, you should seek redress from them. You need to explain to the company what has happened, and ask for your money back. You have their email. You should also change your government gateway password if they have access to it (via your personal tax account). 

dixon2094

unholyangel said:

When you say access to your government gateway, do you mean you had to authorise them? Or that they actually asked for your user ID, password and got you to send them an activation code? 

Ultimately you're liable to HMRC. If the agent has a professional body membership (ACCA, ICAS, ICAEW etc) then you should be able to complain to them if the agent doesn't deal with your complaint satisfactorily. 

If no professional body then you'd need to take action against them, and hope they have the funds/assets to pay you if you win. 

Yes, I have email threads and text messages showing they ask for my gateway ID/password, and the auth code when it arrived at my address. Which I provided.

dixon2094

Jeremy535897 said:

I am baffled by the whole story. Normally you appoint an agent by signing a 64-8 (New), or by receiving a code to appoint them online. In neither case do they need access to your government gateway account. They use their own as agent. HMRC regard the use by agents of a taxpayer's own government gateway account as wholly unacceptable (they made a specific point about this regarding SEISS). But if you signed nothing, and they did use your government gateway account, how did they have the repayment assigned to them, and how did HMRC know to mention FTR in their letter to you?

I don't know what their terms and conditions are, but if they claimed a rebate for you that was not due, you should seek redress from them. You need to explain to the company what has happened, and ask for your money back. You have their email. You should also change your government gateway password if they have access to it (via your personal tax account). 

I presume since they had access to my GG account, they were able to put themselves in as the agent. This is displayed online on my GG account, plus I presume the payment went to a Fast Tax Rebates Ltd bank account.

I changed my password, the minute I received my payment from FTR. I've been advised that I can write/email them stating they failed to provide a service 'fit for purpose' under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and ask for my money back. If FTR fail to repay me then I need to take further action to secure the repayment, i.e. bring a small claims/MCOL action against them.

Is this all right? Are there any templates for this at all?