tax refund

starlite_2

hi, im hoping someone can give me advice on claiming a tax refund. i worked during the summer break from university over the summer last year and paid normal tax and n.i . i am definitly entitled to a refund and am wondering how long the claim should take to process. also would it be advisable to use a refund agency, as i have seen many advertised that claim to speed the process up. please help.

sarahlouise210

Do not use a refund agency or anyone claiming to speed things up.. all claims receive the same treatment and if you claim yourself you will keep 100% of the refund due to you. Telephone your tax office and ask for a claim form...the sooner you get it in the sooner you will receive it and many straight forward repayment claims are dealt with on the day they are received these days ( also, unfortunately due to the massive numbers received many are not dealt with on the day they are received !) ::)

MarkyMarkD

I absolutely agree with sarahlouise. When I was a student (unfortunately many years ago) I often claimed refunds and they are turned around relatively quickly.

Refund agencies are just a con. All you have to do is send your P45 to the Inland Revenue with a covering letter explaining that you won't work any more this tax year (or whatever) and you will get your tax back.

You won't get a refund on NI - that's hard luck, I'm afraid.

Also, you wouldn't have paid tax during your work period in the summer if your employer had got you to fill the right forms in - unless you earned a lot of money, you should have been paying no tax for at least some of the period until your cumulative tax allowance at that point in the year had been exhausted.

sarahlouise210

The form that ensures students pay no tax is a P38S its unfortunately not used by some employers.. ususally the ones that employ vast numbers of students (such as major supermarkets)...strange but true! The rules state that it is only available to Students that work holiday time only..if they do any work outside this time it cannot be used. Any student who starts a new job should fill in a P46 and their code should be ok.. (as Marky said) however they should still telephone their tax office to make sure their code is correct every time they start a new job-this way they should never need to claim a refund..unless they leave before the new tax code can be used! ;D