Claiming back previous year's overpaid tax from HMRC

Crazy_Diamond

My husband does a self assessment tax return each year. In January we realised that he has been doing it wrong and not including the tax relief at source as part of his pension contribution. This means that he has been missing out on the full tax allowance. For the last 2 years we were able to amend this electronically however for the year prior to this HMRC said we had to do it in writing.

We sent them a letter in early January setting out the details but have not heard anything back. Does anyone know if there is anyway to check they have received it?

Despite sending it recorded delivery there was no acknowledgement of receipt (looking online it appears HMRC do not sign for their recorded delivery). My DH is pretty hopeless with chasing things so I am not sure if he has fully checked if there is anyway to contact them about this but tells me that the team that deals with this has no phone contact. Does anyone know if this is the case? We only have until April to make this claim so I am keen to know if they are processing it.

Any advice would be appreciated as the amount owed is around £1500 so not a small sum.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Do you mean January 2024 or January 2023?

If 2024 I wouldn't expect to hear anything for a while yet!

Did you follow the guidance on gov.uk about the precise format to make a claim for overpayment relief?

Crazy_Diamond

Lol, yes Jan 2024.  I just wanted to get an acknowledgement they had received it as the deadline for making a claim for that tax year is 4th April 2024 and I am concerned they could just deny having received the letter.

Yes we followed the guidance on the format of the letter.

sheramber

How much eaxtra tax would we have to pay if HMRC  had to  acknowledge the hundreds of pieces of post they receive each day.

When post is received it is logged onto the computer in a queue to be dealt with.  When that happens depends on how many ar ein front of it in the queue.

It should also be logged in your husband's personal tax account online, showing it is waiting to be dealt with.

You canuse this to check when to expect s reply

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-hmrc

Crazy_Diamond

sheramber said:

How much eaxtra tax would we have to pay if HMRC  had to  acknowledge the hundreds of pieces of post they receive each day.

When post is received it is logged onto the computer in a queue to be dealt with.  When that happens depends on how many ar ein front of it in the queue.

It should also be logged in your husband's personal tax account online, showing it is waiting to be dealt with.

You canuse this to check when to expect s reply

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-hmrc

Thanks for the link.  I have checked this and it says he should have received a reply by 31st Jan.  There is nothing logged in his personal tax account either as this does not appear to deal with tax years older than the past 2.

Green_hopeful

I had a similar issue with a tax reclaim. It said it would be two weeks. In the end it was more than two months. If you go on the HMRC chatbot (which doesn’t seem to be working today) https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/self-assessment and type adviser it should put you through to a human. Best to try before 10 am. You might have to type it in a few times. It will want your husband’s name address date of birth and national insurance number. I typed mine into an email so I could copy and paste when I got through. You can then ask if they have got the request and when it might go through. They were a bit optimistic with my application but it at least gives you peace of mind they have got it. 

Crazy_Diamond

Green_hopeful said:

I had a similar issue with a tax reclaim. It said it would be two weeks. In the end it was more than two months. If you go on the HMRC chatbot (which doesn’t seem to be working today) https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/self-assessment and type adviser it should put you through to a human. Best to try before 10 am. You might have to type it in a few times. It will want your husband’s name address date of birth and national insurance number. I typed mine into an email so I could copy and paste when I got through. You can then ask if they have got the request and when it might go through. They were a bit optimistic with my application but it at least gives you peace of mind they have got it. 

Thanks Green this was a really helpful tip.  The chat is a really useful tool, I got through to someone straight away and had confirmation they had received it. 

Green_hopeful

Pleased it helped. 

Bear777

You can claim back for 4 years and you can do it at any stage, so don’t be stressing about the 4th April. I had to claim back for about 2 or 3 years after they hadn’t included accurate personal pension contributions. It took months a something like 4 or 5 months to get the matter resolved. So don’t be expecting anything before May at the earliest…