Trouble with HMRC due to IVA

svrider28

Hi, I would appreciate it if anyone could shed any light on this issue?

The Facts

1. My wife and I both took out IVAs in Oct 07 to deal with our debt problems.

2. We were both self employed until March 07

3. I filed my tax return for April 06/April 07 in September, by post, as usual and was notified that I had a repayment of £813 due. I still haven't recieved it, HMRC say it is due to IVA.

4. My wife filed her return in January 08, online, and recieved repayment of £240 within 10 days, even though her IVa was accepted at exactly the same time as mine.

5. HMRC have not been very helpful, I was even told that its was a "grey area" and the person I was talking to told me that they "could not be sure" about the information they were giving me!

My questions

1. Why should an IVA that was accepted in Oct 07 have an affect on repayment for a tax return that was for the period April 06/April 07?

2. Why did my wife recieve her payment promptly with no questions asked even though she filed her return 4 months later than mine?

3. will I ever see the money or should I write it off?

4. £813 is a substantial amount to us, HMRC obviously know that we are struggling (why else would we take out IVAs) but they still keep hold of the repayment.

I would be grateful for any help with this matter as I'm banging my head against a brick wall at the moment.
Thanks for reading.

JCS1

I'm not an expert on IVA's but think I know why HMRC are confused. If you go bankrupt, any tax refunds due for x number of tax years leading up to the bankruptcy get paid over to the OR. Probably the person who deals with your case is using this as an example, but another person deals with your wife's case.

It might be worth a phone call to your IVA company, to see if they can throw any light on it (just make sure there isn't a clause in the IVA about windfall's going into the IVA first).