HMRC refunds once tax return submitted - timescales

cymruchris

I have a tax refund due of a couple of thousand pounds due to an overpayment in the tax year 2021/2022. I'd been working with one of HMRC's unusual cases team to calculate what was due, and then submitted the figures agreed through my online tax return. This was completed towards the end of January. A few days after submission I could see that it was labelled 'repayment pending', and has been that ever since. Is there an expected timescale in terms of when these repayments are made? Trying to find answers in their FAQ isn't quite clear, but indicates it should be 2 weeks, but up to 4 depending on security checks. From other forum users experiences, how long does it usually take to for 'repayment pending' to become 'paid'? It'd be great to hear others experiences before spending a couple of hours trying to get through by phone. (I've tried their twitter handle and they've not replied after several days)

jimmo

Every April there is a raft of new and revived threads on here where people compare experiences about getting repayments from HMRC. Some get them in a matter of days. Many are not so lucky and the usual problem is Security checks.

There's not a lot anybody can do to speed things up, Rather like credit checks what they look for is independent evidence of your existence and whereabouts, with the emphasis on "independent". Anything you might supply won't be independent.

You could ,of course, try a formal complaint.

sheramber

it depends......... on whether it is selected for security checks and how long these checks take, where you are in the queue of cases to be security checked, where you are in the cue of repayments waiting to be issued.

Since masses of returns will have been processed at the end of January any of these queues could be rather long.

[Deleted User]

sheramber said:

it depends......... on whether it is selected for security checks and how long these checks take, where you are in the queue of cases to be security checked, where you are in the cue of repayments waiting to be issued.

Since masses of returns will have been processed at the end of January any of these queues could be rather long.

Indeed - 861000 (1 in 14) filed on 31st January, 37000 in the final hour.

cymruchris

Thanks for the replies above - I know everyone's case will be different, but have just received the notification of repayment being completed earlier today. (It hasn't reached my bank account yet - I imagine will take a few days) - but if of use to anyone - my return was submitted on the 27th of January (although it shows as the 31st in the app)  - and payment made today 21st of March - so a touch under 2 months.