Tax reclaim companies

Mister_Muso

First time poster here. My wife just handed over my name, address, email, job title and NI number to a company called Money Back Helpdesk. They offer a "service" to reclaim tax for working-at-home from the government scheme available through their own website. However this third party company charges 48 percent for doing it for you!

Needless to say I won't be taking this any further with them other than asking them to delete my details, but I'll get around to doing the claim myself. I'm just concerned what they are going to do with my details.

They seem like a fairly legitimate company from their website. However my wife says she saw them featured in a Money Saving Expert article, but in fact they were simply advertising at the foot of an online newspaper interview with MSE. Their name and advertising tactics seem designed to deliberately mislead.

[Deleted User]

It depends how she handed this information over, frequently things like clicks on social media adverts start the process of authorising the firm to act on your behalf. You would do well to contact them in writing (obtain free proof of postage) and by email to demand they delete all your details and that you are not entering a contract with them as you can end up with them charging you for any refund you obtain.

Mister_Muso

Thanks, I've emailed them and will follow up in writing. Hopefully that will cover me and they'll move on to easier targets though I wish I hadn't been in such a rush and accepted my wife's interpretation. She had seen their ad underneath an article in the Mirror Online posted by MSE, so it looks like the ad placement and even the name of the company are designed to mislead.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Don't be at all surprised if HMRC pay any refund due direct to this company.

They (the tax refund companies) are expert at submitting legally binding deeds of assignment forms to HMRC which means any income tax refund covered by the years on the assignment have to be paid to the tax refund company.

You can normally only avoid this by persuading the tax refund company to agree to revoke the assignment but that's easier said than done.

Mister_Muso

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Don't be at all surprised if HMRC pay any refund due direct to this company.

They (the tax refund companies) are expert at submitting legally binding deeds of assignment forms to HMRC which means any income tax refund covered by the years on the assignment have to be paid to the tax refund company.

You can normally only avoid this by persuading the tax refund company to agree to revoke the assignment but that's easier said than done.

Would they need my PAYE reference to do that? This was one piece of information I didn't give them.

penners324

No, looks like you gave them enough information for them to set up a Deed of Assignment with HMRC so any tax rebates due to you will go to them first. This can only be changed with the company’s agreement 

steampowered

A lot of these tax reclaim companies make fraudulent claims for tax rebates you are not entitled to.

You are then left holding the baby when HMRC asks for their money back.

Make sure you read the actual eligibility criteria at https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home. They are much more restricted than these dodgy tax reclaim companies suggest - you may well not qualify for the relief at all.