Refund from HMRC
Discussion
I’ll try and keep this simple:
I was recently helping my GF do her self assessment tax return and noticed that her employer had until very recently, been making pension contributions from her net pay, with the pension company re-claiming the 20% basic rate tax relief.
I asked if she’d been re-claiming the further tax relief (she’s been a higher rate payer for the entire duration of employment)....to which I got a blank look.
To cut a long story short we’ve gathered all the info and contacted HMRC who have begun the process of updating records and issuing re-funds etc. All well and good, except:
When updating for the tax year 2015/16, HMRC advised that for this year she was underpaid, so instead of ~£1000 refund, she only received ~£300.
My issue is that HMRC admitted / stated on the phone that the underpayment had already been repaid (in a later tax year - 2016/17 through PAYE)
So by my (perhaps flawed) logic she has re-paid this tax twice. I asked the person at HMRC to confirm that the underpayment had been re-paid, which they did, but told me that she was unable to not ‘collect’ this money again for 2015-16 amendment, as the system is effectively time stamped and won’t take into account the repayment in a later year.
Does this sound correct?
I’m reasonably au fait with self assessment, but have no direct experience of dealing with the idiosyncrasies of HMRC and their system.
Combined we’re dealing with ~£4K of refund, so it’s worth getting right!
Thanks,
I was recently helping my GF do her self assessment tax return and noticed that her employer had until very recently, been making pension contributions from her net pay, with the pension company re-claiming the 20% basic rate tax relief.
I asked if she’d been re-claiming the further tax relief (she’s been a higher rate payer for the entire duration of employment)....to which I got a blank look.
To cut a long story short we’ve gathered all the info and contacted HMRC who have begun the process of updating records and issuing re-funds etc. All well and good, except:
When updating for the tax year 2015/16, HMRC advised that for this year she was underpaid, so instead of ~£1000 refund, she only received ~£300.
My issue is that HMRC admitted / stated on the phone that the underpayment had already been repaid (in a later tax year - 2016/17 through PAYE)
So by my (perhaps flawed) logic she has re-paid this tax twice. I asked the person at HMRC to confirm that the underpayment had been re-paid, which they did, but told me that she was unable to not ‘collect’ this money again for 2015-16 amendment, as the system is effectively time stamped and won’t take into account the repayment in a later year.
Does this sound correct?
I’m reasonably au fait with self assessment, but have no direct experience of dealing with the idiosyncrasies of HMRC and their system.
Combined we’re dealing with ~£4K of refund, so it’s worth getting right!
Thanks,
I believe the normal time frames for HMRC to pursue prior year underpaymrents are,
Innocent behaviour - 4 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Careless behaviour - 6 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Deliberate behaviour - 20 years from the end of the relevant tax period
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/complianc...
Innocent behaviour - 4 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Careless behaviour - 6 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Deliberate behaviour - 20 years from the end of the relevant tax period
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/complianc...
thekingisdead said:
I’ll try and keep this simple:
I was recently helping my GF do her self assessment tax return and noticed that her employer had until very recently, been making pension contributions from her net pay, with the pension company re-claiming the 20% basic rate tax relief.
I asked if she’d been re-claiming the further tax relief (she’s been a higher rate payer for the entire duration of employment)....to which I got a blank look.
To cut a long story short we’ve gathered all the info and contacted HMRC who have begun the process of updating records and issuing re-funds etc. All well and good, except:
When updating for the tax year 2015/16, HMRC advised that for this year she was underpaid, so instead of ~£1000 refund, she only received ~£300.
My issue is that HMRC admitted / stated on the phone that the underpayment had already been repaid (in a later tax year - 2016/17 through PAYE)
So by my (perhaps flawed) logic she has re-paid this tax twice. I asked the person at HMRC to confirm that the underpayment had been re-paid, which they did, but told me that she was unable to not ‘collect’ this money again for 2015-16 amendment, as the system is effectively time stamped and won’t take into account the repayment in a later year.
Does this sound correct?
I’m reasonably au fait with self assessment, but have no direct experience of dealing with the idiosyncrasies of HMRC and their system.
Combined we’re dealing with ~£4K of refund, so it’s worth getting right!
Thanks,
Sounds like bI was recently helping my GF do her self assessment tax return and noticed that her employer had until very recently, been making pension contributions from her net pay, with the pension company re-claiming the 20% basic rate tax relief.
I asked if she’d been re-claiming the further tax relief (she’s been a higher rate payer for the entire duration of employment)....to which I got a blank look.
To cut a long story short we’ve gathered all the info and contacted HMRC who have begun the process of updating records and issuing re-funds etc. All well and good, except:
When updating for the tax year 2015/16, HMRC advised that for this year she was underpaid, so instead of ~£1000 refund, she only received ~£300.
My issue is that HMRC admitted / stated on the phone that the underpayment had already been repaid (in a later tax year - 2016/17 through PAYE)
So by my (perhaps flawed) logic she has re-paid this tax twice. I asked the person at HMRC to confirm that the underpayment had been re-paid, which they did, but told me that she was unable to not ‘collect’ this money again for 2015-16 amendment, as the system is effectively time stamped and won’t take into account the repayment in a later year.
Does this sound correct?
I’m reasonably au fait with self assessment, but have no direct experience of dealing with the idiosyncrasies of HMRC and their system.
Combined we’re dealing with ~£4K of refund, so it’s worth getting right!
Thanks,
ks. There's no way it is reasonable to collect the money twice. I'd put this all in writing in a letter to HMRC and get them to sort it out, rather than trying to make sense of this over the phone. rockin said:
I believe the normal time frames for HMRC to pursue prior year underpaymrents are,
Innocent behaviour - 4 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Careless behaviour - 6 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Deliberate behaviour - 20 years from the end of the relevant tax period
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/complianc...
There is no time limit regarding fraud.Innocent behaviour - 4 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Careless behaviour - 6 years from the end of the relevant tax period
Deliberate behaviour - 20 years from the end of the relevant tax period
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/complianc...
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