Claiming repayment of tax - further advice needed

LiveWrong

This is the first time I have strayed away from the GIOL board, well with this account anyway, so please be gentle with me.

I'm certain that I have earned less than my personal allowance for the last tax year, but have been taxed over £300 for a number of the normal reasons (Two jobs for a while, temping and casual work, being unemployed for a large chunk of the tax year due to uni...). Claiming the tax back should be quite straightforward, right? I've got the P45s/P60 and other info to hand, or will have when I find them, so I need to fill out http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/r40.pdf, don't I?

This is where it gets slightly more complicated. I was a full time student up until last summer for a lot longer than I'm able to claim repayments for. As such I only ever had part time jobs for a few months here and there when I had no other choice and I don't think that I earned more than my personal allowance for any of those years. I didn't get too far the last time I tried to claim a repayment, I called my local tax office and spent a heck of a lot of time on hold before explaining my situation. They sent me the R40 that I had already found online.

Due to moving house a couple of times, as you do as a student, I haven't got all of the P60s/P45s for the period of time in question, so as I don't know the exact amounts that I earned and paid in tax an R40 isn't of much use to me. I mentioned this on the phone and the person in question wasn't at all helpful. I understand that I can claim repayments from 2003/4 onwards, but how would I go about doing this? If it's a case of writing to my tax office, what info would I need to include and how should the letter read? Are there any template letters for things like this?

Apologies if the answers to my questions can be found elsewhere in other threads, I had a quick skim through the stickies and the first 20 pages of the forum and didn't find much.

Thanks in advance, I'm probably looking at a couple of months worth of rent, so getting hold of the money is obviously quite important to me.

fengirl_2

There is no need to complete a form. Just send a letter to HMRC which clearly sets out the names and addresses of all your employers during the year ended 5 April 2008, together with any periods when you claimed JSA. Also, show what periods you were a student so they have a complete picture of what you were doing all year. There is no need to state amounts of earnings as they should have the P45 details from previous employers.
You do need to send the P60 up to the end of the tax year though as the tax office won't yet have had time to process the copy which your employer will have sent in.
If you want to claim for previous years, send similar info - but you wont need your P60's as this info will already have been processed.
The letter does not need to be complicated - just set out what you were doing each year clearly - you dont need to write War and Peace, just say you think you are due refunds for this year and can you have them pelase.

LiveWrong

fengirl wrote: »

There is no need to complete a form. Just send a letter to HMRC which clearly sets out the names and addresses of all your employers during the year ended 5 April 2008, together with any periods when you claimed JSA. Also, show what periods you were a student so they have a complete picture of what you were doing all year. There is no need to state amounts of earnings as they should have the P45 details from previous employers.
You do need to send the P60 up to the end of the tax year though as the tax office won't yet have had time to process the copy which your employer will have sent in.
If you want to claim for previous years, send similar info - but you wont need your P60's as this info will already have been processed.
The letter does not need to be complicated - just set out what you were doing each year clearly - you dont need to write War and Peace, just say you think you are due refunds for this year and can you have them pelase.

Just to check, I'd send the letter to my local tax office, right?

Thanks for the help, it's almost certainly time to start writing the letter

fengirl_2

You send the letter to the tax office which deals with your present or last employer. If this is the employer who gave you the P60, the address may be on there.

LiveWrong

Apologies in advance for the ranty nature of this post and bringing the swear filter into play, but I'm pretty darn angry. Can anyone offer any further advice on my situation?

After over a month they finally got back to me, I assumed that as they had taken such a long time to respond, they would be processing a repayment. Wrong. It seems as though they are expecting me to jump through hoops to get my money.

The Revenue Officer who dealt with my letter expects me to fill in an Employment Record form for the previous five years that I attempted to claim for and return it along with all of the P45s and P60s. Perhaps a reasonable request had the original letter not provided all of the relevant information, but it clearly stated all of the jobs that I have had, any taxable benefits I have claimed and periods where I have had no income. The letter rather patronisingly stated that if I ran out of space on the form to continue on a piece of paper. I'm struggling to see the difference between the piece of paper I gave them previously with all of the details and the magical piece of paper they'll get with the details on a second time. Why the !!!! do they want me to give them the same information again? Stalling me in hope that I don't continue with the claim is the only explanation that I can come up with.

As for the previous tax year, stating period of time I claimed JSA doesn't seem to be enough for them, they expect a letter from the jobcentre stating exactly how much I received. How easy will it be to obtain such a letter and should I have to?

They have all of the information needed to process my claim, which after all should be incredibly straightforward as I haven't exceeded my personal allowance for any of the years in question, so where do I go from here? I have a feeling that if I jump through all of the hoops, they'll refuse a repayment on the grounds of not providing them with all of the P45s/60s, some of which I didn't receive in the first place.

Can this be sorted over the phone, or have I got jumping to do?

I also think that regardless of the time of year, it is unacceptable to have been made to wait for over a month, with no acknowledgement of my letter, for a form to be sent back to me. It feels like yet another stalling tactic. How would I go about, for want of a better word, complaining about the situation without leaving myself open to more stalling /excuses not to pay me?

Cheers folks.

BoGoF

Ok, first things first there was probably no need to issue the employment history form as you had already provided it but the facts are HMRC do not have a crystal ball as some people think, they may or may not have details from your previous employers and may or may not have details of your Jobseekers allowance. It seems not or they would not be asking for it.

To suggest they are 'stalling' you so you won't pursue your claim is frankly ridiculous. My suggestion is to get in touch with the benefit office and obtain details of the jobseekers allowance you received then return the P91 with this saying you have already supplied a full employment history - did you account for any gaps in employement/JSA claim during this time - and you no longer hold any further P45's/P60's.

Finally, despite the rights and wrongs a month is not a long time for some of the tax offices, but don't expect things to get any better.

Jockthearab

LiveWrong, I received my new amended tax code for 08/09 which stated "...due to information we have received from your employer we have amended your tax code as follows...". I had queried my tax code for 07/08 last June (07), September & also sent another letter in Jan this year trying to prompt them! (I did receive an acknowledgement in Feb 08 saying they would be working on my tax queries & they'd be in touch shortly). So I too have been frustrated that they have used the "info from my employer" than the info I've sent them!

From speaking to another colleague who'd queried his tax code, here in Scotland, they seem to have a backlog of work that they are slowly working through. It is frustrating, but don't give up. I myself will be writing again to them shortly. I'd advise you keep a copy of any correspondence you send so that in future you can send it again or use for your own reference.

Good Luck!

JtA