HMRC - how long for refunds at the moment?

Victorwelldue

I wrote to HMRC to claim tax relief on pension contributions at start of May. I called them to chase up at start of August and they confirmed they had my letter and that I should receive response by end August but nothing back so far. Just wondering what others experiences are like at the moment before I embark on another phone call and being on hold for an hour+.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Which tax year(s) is the claim for?

And is this higher rate tax relief on "relief at source" contributions or was it a gross payment with no tax relief at all when it was paid?

Victorwelldue

Its for the 21/22 tax year. Higher rate relief at source contributions throughout the year.

I did the same last few tax years and took around 6-8 weeks for refund to come through (even during Covid). Taking much longer this time.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Not sure of timescales but if you have claimed in the past is it possible you have already received the correct tax relief via a tax code adjustment (in your 2021:22 tax code)?

Have you done the sums to see if any additional relief is due?

Victorwelldue

Yes I am expecting a refund. Even if my calculations were wrong I'd still expect a letter back, so the main question is: is anyone else having to wait this long for responses from HMRC at present?

One other thing to add is that I did switch to a sal sacrifice scheme at the very end of the tax year, perhaps this makes it a more complicated case for them and takes longer for them to calculate but I would have thought a fairly common occurrence for them.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Victorwelldue said:

Yes I am expecting a refund. Even if my calculations were wrong I'd still expect a letter back, so the main question is: is anyone else having to wait this long for responses from HMRC at present?

One other thing to add is that I did switch to a sal sacrifice scheme at the very end of the tax year, perhaps this makes it a more complicated case for them and takes longer for them to calculate but I would have thought a fairly common occurrence for them.

Salary sacrifice won't be a factor for HMRC.

It means you aren't contributing to the pension, you are agreeing to a lower salary in return for larger employer contributions.  As they are employer contributions there is no tax relief due.  

They simply reduce your taxable pay, so potentially also reducing any higher rate tax relief due on your relief at source contributions made in the same tax year.

Not sure why there would be such a delay in responding.

yorkiechick

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-hmrc
This will give you a date when you should expect a reply

johnnybaloney

I'm in the same situation. HMRC received my paperwork in May and told me to wait until P800 arrives which should be by the end of November. We shall see...

Shame there is no way to see a record of this anywhere online or in the HMRC app. There are 'Messages' and 'Form Tracker' on the website but none of them mentions the fact the paperwork was received, how long this will take to process or the next steps. Pretty poor customer experience in this time and age. And the less said about trying to call them the better.

JGB1955

My 'recent' refund took 18 months.

Retirebefore50

I submitted 3 x EIS claims for a prior year (sent Mar, Apr and May). Called 3 times chasing. Received payment just last week,for all of them together. You can login to your online SA and it will show any paperwork sent in, but it never updated as being processed. Had to call and check. 

Victorwelldue

Just as an update I did get my refund around a month ago after another phone call to HMRC. It seems they were unsure if the amounts that had been mentioned in my letter were gross or net (even though both my letter & letter from my provider stated gross). Previous adviser never mentioned that that they needed this clarified. Once I confirmed gross got the refund paid into my bank within around 4-5 days.