Anyone every claimed overpaid tax back ?

[Medic-one]

Ok, so i filled in this form 2 months ago to get uniform tax rebate as we wash our NHS uniforms ourselfs and apperently we can claim a bit of tax back for that, so filled in the forms, and then got a letter back stating i was due back so much, and that they changed my tax code to 52T.

I then spoke to the company that helped set up that letter about the uniform rebate and they said that wasn't right and i should ring HMRC, they confirmed i shouldn't have been changed to 52T and set they now change it to 700L.

They also said that for this year i hadn't received my personal allowence or something and that i was due back some money. I then spoke to that first company again and send them some information about my salary and taxcodes and they said i have been overpaying tax since i started this job and have paid over £ 5000, to much in tax over the last couple of years as i was in the wrong taxcode group or something.

Basically i moved to England in september 2006 and started my job over here 3 days after i moved over, so i never have had any others jobs here so never paid tax before in England.

And from september 2006 untill now my taxcode as been BR CUMUL. I have no idea what that means but apperently that's not the right code for my salary (which is in the mid-20K's).

Now this company says they can claim that 5000 back for me, charging me £ 170, for it only to be paid it the claim is succesfull.
However it might take a couple of months they said.

With the summer started and the car needing some TLC i'd rather have that money as soon as possible, so i was just wondering if anyone else ever used one of those companies (as there seem to be loads stating they can claim tax back for you) and how long did it take.

Cheers

[Eric Mc]

BR means Basic Rate. This means that your employer has been taking tax out of your salary based on a straight 20% of your monthly salary. So, if you have a Gross Monthly salary of (say) £1,000, £200 tax will be deducted from the £1,000) I am ignoring the deductions for National Insurance Contributions in this example in an effort to keep things simpler.

Every taxpayer in the UK is allowed earn up to a certain amount before they are liable to ANY tax. A BR tax coding means that you haven't been allocated ANY personal tax allowance since you came to the UK. The levels of tax allowance sometimes varies from person to person depending on their personal circumstances.
The standard personal tax allowances for the years that concern you are as follows -

2006/07 - £5,035 (PAYE Coding 503L)
2007/08 - £5,225 (PAYE Coding 522L)
2008/09 - £6,035 (PAYE Coding 603L)
2009/10 - £6,475 (PAYE Coding 647L)
2010/11 - £6,475 (PAYE Coding 647L)

If what you are saying is true and correct i.e. that you have not received any tax allowances for these years, you MIGHT be due a very substantial tax rebate. Because of the number of years and the possible refund amount involved, you might want to consider completing Self Assessment tax returns for these years as this is often the most effective way to get things moving at HMRC.

You also mention that you are entitled to claim for a uniform. If that is the case, then the allowances shown above can be increased further for the agreed uniform allowance amounts.

Maybe a chat to an accountant might be in order.

[Medic-one]

Eric Mc said:

BR means Basic Rate. This means that your employer has been taking tax out of your salary based on a straight 20% of your monthly salary. So, if you have a Gross Monthly salary of (say) £1,000, £200 tax will be deducted from the £1,000) I am ignoring the deductions for National Insurance Contributions in this example in an effort to keep things simpler.

Every taxpayer in the UK is allowed earn up to a certain amount before they are liable to ANY tax. A BR tax coding means that you haven't been allocated ANY personal tax allowance since you came to the UK. The levels of tax allowance sometimes varies from person to person depending on their personal circumstances.
The standard personal tax allowances for the years that concern you are as follows -

2006/07 - £5,035 (PAYE Coding 503L)
2007/08 - £5,225 (PAYE Coding 522L)
2008/09 - £6,035 (PAYE Coding 603L)
2009/10 - £6,475 (PAYE Coding 647L)
2010/11 - £6,475 (PAYE Coding 647L)

If what you are saying is true and correct i.e. that you have not received any tax allowances for these years, you MIGHT be due a very substantial tax rebate. Because of the number of years and the possible refund amount involved, you might want to consider completing Self Assessment tax returns for these years as this is often the most effective way to get things moving at HMRC.

You also mention that you are entitled to claim for a uniform. If that is the case, then the allowances shown above can be increased further for the agreed uniform allowance amounts.

Maybe a chat to an accountant might be in order.

Thanks for the reply and information Eric.

I don't see taxcode 700L in your list though, and i think that's what they put me into now. I'm getting paid tomorrow so i'll check what my payslip says on it.

Those self assessment tax return forms, are they hard to fill in if you don't know anything about taxes and the UK tax system ?

I emailed that company stating how long it would roughly take it get it all sorted and he said they can do it within 2 months which doesn't sound to bad now to be honnost.

I haven't got an accountant, and i've heard they're like laywers, charging a very high hourly fee for a meeting full of fancy words i wouldn't understand anyway.

[Eric Mc]

I would suggest that your 700L code must be made up of the normal personal tax allowance pf £6,475 plus an additional allowance of £525 to cover your Uniform Allowance.

As I said, many people's codes vary a bit from the basic 647L for genuine reasons - such as claims for allowable expenses.

Self Assessment tax returns are pretty complicated - even for Brits. However, if you are due back a tax refund that could amount to a few thousand pounds, I think a chat to an accountant might be a good investment. I'm sure a reasonable one would charge a very reasonable sum.

We're notb all sharks

[to3m]

You can phone up HMRC and ask them for a self assessment tax return. I think anybody can do this; I phoned them up and they sent me one. I'm not a higher rate tax payer, I don't make any money from property, I'm not a company director, no capital gains tax, etc. -- I'm just this ordinary guy. (It's kind of a long and boring story why I even wanted one in the first place.)

I filled the thing in online, and found it pretty easy. You sound like a native English speaker, so you should be OK on that front -- if you've got no fear of official-looking forms, and you're in the habit of keeping your paperwork, it should turn out straightforward. I managed to fill the thing out simply by following the instructions carefully and digging into my big box of paperwork when necessary.

They'll run the calculations for you, if you do it online, based on the figures you provide, and pay any rebate -- should any be due -- straight into your bank account. I got a rebate of an amazing £42 for 2007-8, and as I recall it was in my account within the month. (When I was in my teens, about 15 years ago now, my dad sorted out an incorrect tax code that I somehow got assigned in a summer job -- I was too young and thick to do it myself at the time -- and as I recall it was some months before I got my cheque for £75 or whatever. Assuming they haven't generally tightened things up across the board, the tax return approach seems a lot more efficient.)

Unfortunately I'm no accountant... sorry. All I can provide is anecdotal evidence from my own personal archives. Please don't take this as anything even remotely resembling the sort of professional advice you'd get if you paid for it

[edit: I said, "they'll pay the money straight into your bank account". That was probably the wrong phrase. Edited for accuracy.]

Edited by to3m on Friday 25th June 23:14

[Eric Mc]

You are correct. The on-line Self Assessment system is now pretty robust and because you are effectively doing HMRC's work for them, the process is pretty speedy.

[Jackleman]

I got money back that was owing to me within a about a month after submitting my self assessment so do it and get your money back!

[amirzed]

listen dig out your P60's (end of year wages information - should be with your march payslips), register with HMRC to get a UTR and they will either send you the returns or allow you to do it online.

If you're only income has been your job then you will only have one sheet to fill in on the return - the supplementary one.

You can go to your local HMRC once you have your UTR and sit down with one of the advisors and they'll prob give you a hand to fill it in

[Deva Link]

Medic-one said:

And from september 2006 untill now my taxcode as been BR CUMUL. I have no idea what that means but apperently that's not the right code for my salary (which is in the mid-20K's).

Now this company says they can claim that 5000 back for me, charging me £ 170, for it only to be paid it the claim is succesfull.
However it might take a couple of months they said.

My daughter and her husband to be are buying a house and, in getting the stuff together for the mortgage application, we just discovered that he's been taxed on a BR code for the 4 years he's been in his current job.

We got him to call his tax office, and apparently they said "oops" (they could see his P60's on their system - we dreaded him trying to find those) and said they'll change his current tax code immediately, so he'll get the rebate he's due for this year in his normal pay, and they will repay his overpaid tax for the last 3yrs, but they did say that will take 2-3mths as they have a huge backlog. Their reaction seemed to be that they'd cocked up.

In answer to later comments in the thread, the self assessment form can seem daunting but if you've just got one job, very uncomplicated financial affairs and you don't pay higher rate tax, then there's very little you need to put on the form - your employer and salary detail, and the claim for uniform cleaning expenses, would be about it.

[zcacogp]

Subsiduary question: how far back can you claim back overpaid tax?

(Mrs zcacogp overpays tax each year and gets a rebate when she does the tax return. However she has only done a tax return for the last 3 or 4 years. Can she - now - go back further than this?)


Oli.

[Medic-one]

Eric Mc said:

However, if you are due back a tax refund that could amount to a few thousand pounds, I think a chat to an accountant might be a good investment. I'm sure a reasonable one would charge a very reasonable sum.

We're not all sharks

Woops... Sorry mate, didn't realise you are one.

Wasn't trying to be rude, it's more ignorance i'd say. This will sound silly but i only know accountants from movies and stuff. I'm 26 and haven't really got any finances, i'm renting a place and my salary pays the rent and the bills and that's basically my finance so never had to deal with an accountant

to3m said:

You sound like a native English speaker, so you should be OK on that front

I'm actually Dutch/Egyptian, only been here for a couple of years now

Deva Link said:

the self assessment form can seem daunting but if you've just got one job, very uncomplicated financial affairs and you don't pay higher rate tax, then there's very little you need to put on the form - your employer and salary detail, and the claim for uniform cleaning expenses, would be about it.

I've only got the one job, but my gross salary (which is in the top corner of every payslip) is excluding 25% unsociable hours as we work nights/weekends/bank holidays so that 25% is listed on the left under "pay and allowances" and seems to be different every month.

I also do quiet a bit of overtime, sometimes upto 70 hours (which is only 5 - 6 extra shifts and beeing a 12-hour roster means i usually only work about 15 days every out of each month so time enough to do some extra).

So if i fill in that return form thingy, do i just quote my gross salary as it states on my paycheck (without the 25%) ?


My last payslip (june) had that 52T CUMUL code on it, but i have received another letter now stating it's gonna change to 700L.

I also received a letter from that company who said they could claim it for me (charing 170 odd quit) which is this "tax claim" form with HMC logo's on it, only stating i'm authorising them to deal with the claim on my behalf and it wants my signature on a couple of pages.

But you guys say i'd be better off filling that form in online and just going for it myself right ?

[Deva Link]

Medic-one said:

So if i fill in that return form thingy, do i just quote my gross salary as it states on my paycheck (without the 25%) ?

You need your end-of-tax-year P60's, which will show your total pay for the year.

Medic-one said:

I also received a letter from that company who said they could claim it for me (charing 170 odd quit) which is this "tax claim" form with HMC logo's on it, only stating i'm authorising them to deal with the claim on my behalf and it wants my signature on a couple of pages.

But you guys say i'd be better off filling that form in online and just going for it myself right ?

If they've done some work for you already, and you're not confident you can sort this out, then you may feel it's worth paying them to sort this out for you.

[Eric Mc]

Here's what you should do.

Work out the tax years for which you think you overpaid tax i.e 2009/10,2008/09, 2007/08 etc

gather together the following paperwork for each tax year -

i) your P60 (this will show your gross salary and the tax deducted for the erelevant tax year

ii) any detailed notices of coding you may have received for the various tax years

iii) details of any interest received on various bank accounts for the tax years you are reviewing. This information will be shown on your bank statements for those years or your bank may have provided you with a Certificate or Statement of Interest received. If you can't find this information, the bank will look it up for you, although they may charge for the priviledge. Savings in ISAs are tax free and can be ignored.

iv) any claims for expenses you may be entitled to for the tax years in question

Regarding accountants' costs, these can vary hugely.

In my case, for people who are essentially PAYE only, I would probably charge in the region of £60 per year for each Self Assessment or tax review carried out. Obviously, if I was covering just one year, I would charge £60. If three years, I would charge £180.

[Deva Link]

Deva Link said:

Medic-one said:

And from september 2006 untill now my taxcode as been BR CUMUL. I have no idea what that means but apperently that's not the right code for my salary (which is in the mid-20K's).

Now this company says they can claim that 5000 back for me, charging me £ 170, for it only to be paid it the claim is succesfull.
However it might take a couple of months they said.

My daughter and her husband to be are buying a house and, in getting the stuff together for the mortgage application, we just discovered that he's been taxed on a BR code for the 4 years he's been in his current job.

We got him to call his tax office, and apparently they said "oops" (they could see his P60's on their system - we dreaded him trying to find those) and said they'll change his current tax code immediately, so he'll get the rebate he's due for this year in his normal pay, and they will repay his overpaid tax for the last 3yrs, but they did say that will take 2-3mths as they have a huge backlog. Their reaction seemed to be that they'd cocked up.

In answer to later comments in the thread, the self assessment form can seem daunting but if you've just got one job, very uncomplicated financial affairs and you don't pay higher rate tax, then there's very little you need to put on the form - your employer and salary detail, and the claim for uniform cleaning expenses, would be about it.

Just to close this - future SIL got a cheque for £4K yesterday. So it's taken just 4 weeks from discovery to getting the money. Hopefully this year's rebate will be adjusted into his pay at the end of this month.

[llewop]

Deva Link said:

Deva Link said:

Medic-one said:

And from september 2006 untill now my taxcode as been BR CUMUL. I have no idea what that means but apperently that's not the right code for my salary (which is in the mid-20K's).

Now this company says they can claim that 5000 back for me, charging me £ 170, for it only to be paid it the claim is succesfull.
However it might take a couple of months they said.

My daughter and her husband to be are buying a house and, in getting the stuff together for the mortgage application, we just discovered that he's been taxed on a BR code for the 4 years he's been in his current job.

We got him to call his tax office, and apparently they said "oops" (they could see his P60's on their system - we dreaded him trying to find those) and said they'll change his current tax code immediately, so he'll get the rebate he's due for this year in his normal pay, and they will repay his overpaid tax for the last 3yrs, but they did say that will take 2-3mths as they have a huge backlog. Their reaction seemed to be that they'd cocked up.

In answer to later comments in the thread, the self assessment form can seem daunting but if you've just got one job, very uncomplicated financial affairs and you don't pay higher rate tax, then there's very little you need to put on the form - your employer and salary detail, and the claim for uniform cleaning expenses, would be about it.

Just to close this - future SIL got a cheque for £4K yesterday. So it's taken just 4 weeks from discovery to getting the money. Hopefully this year's rebate will be adjusted into his pay at the end of this month.

that is quick - the earlier figure you were quoted (2-3 momths) seemed more realistic or even optimistic in my experience! for previous years at least - I was reclaiming the previous years tax in the last tax year, they'd agreed to pay it and how much, even asked where to send the cheque in January of this year .... but only actually got the money in the bank this month Having said that, for the (then - Nov 09) current year when they decided to rebate it by salary adjustment, six months or so of tax back + that months salary was rather welcome!

My situation was/is slightly different as it was getting my tax rating changed for working abroad, which wasn't sorted when I first started for complicated reasons (and forms getting lost....)

[Medic-one]

amirzed said:

listen dig out your P60's (end of year wages information - should be with your march payslips), register with HMRC to get a UTR and they will either send you the returns or allow you to do it online.

If you're only income has been your job then you will only have one sheet to fill in on the return - the supplementary one.

You can go to your local HMRC once you have your UTR and sit down with one of the advisors and they'll prob give you a hand to fill it in

How long does it take to get that UTR ?

I've just registered on the HMRC website and it gave me an ID number, but can't seem to have/find an UTR number so can't continue.

[Gareth79]

Medic-one said:

How long does it take to get that UTR ?

I've just registered on the HMRC website and it gave me an ID number, but can't seem to have/find an UTR number so can't continue.

It took several weeks for me, maybe a month when I applied back in January, but that was near the deadline for filing. I got a letter saying "we have been looking at your records and believe you need to file a return" although I had requested to file a return.

[Medic-one]

Blimey that long

Can you not just ring up for that code or do they need to send it ?

[Medic-one]

Ok, so i waited over 2 weeks now for that UTR.

Just rang them up to see if i could perhaps get it over the phone, and when i explained what i wanted to do (claim tax back as i've been in emergency code for last 4 years) i get told i can't do it online as i'm not self employed ?

[Eric Mc]

Medic-one said:

Ok, so i waited over 2 weeks now for that UTR.

Just rang them up to see if i could perhaps get it over the phone, and when i explained what i wanted to do (claim tax back as i've been in emergency code for last 4 years) i get told i can't do it online as i'm not self employed ?

They are giving you the run-around. Many, many people who complete Self Assessment tax returns are NOT Self Employed.