Tax refunds into accountants bank account

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Worked well for Darren Upton.

Yep, and look where it got him.

It's not worth any accountants reputation and livelihood to mess around with client money.

Equally, there is little need these days for tax repayments to go to an accountants client account nor, indeed, for anything other than fee payments to go to accountant. I closed my client account three years ago as it was bank charges for something I didn't need.

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Back in the day, when we dealt with a lot of refund cases, we did this so it may well be a hangover from that kind of thing in their systems. As Jessica says though it's not worth the potential reputational damage or the hassle to deal in client funds.

[BolshieBastard]

In the self assessment return, my accountant filled in the accountant as the nominee - and their bank account - to receive my tax refund, and advised that I would be paid after the refund is received by them from HMRC. Any idea why this is done like this? Why not simply allow the payment to be received in my account? Is there any advantage in making the accountant to receive the refund in the first instance?

WTF!? There's no way Id stand for that. I get hacked off when agencies make me wait 10 days for settling an invoice so having your refund paid into the accountant's bank account is just madness.