Tax Refund During HMRC Investigation

[inziderhh]

Hi,

Is this a common problem that HMRC refuses to pay tax refunds while you are being investigated by their Counter Avoidance team? The tax refund is for the last two years, while the investigation concerns 2012-14.

[BrilloPad]

Hi,

Is this a common problem that HMRC refuses to pay tax refunds while you are being investigated by their Counter Avoidance team? The tax refund is for the last two years, while the investigation concerns 2012-14.

It has happened. Try claiming hardship. If not you may need to get an adviser onto them - which may cost more than the refund!

My ex-wife works for HMRC. When we were together she told me how someone claimed £16 back - they joked he would not get it back until they spent £500 on advisers.....

[regron]

Hi,

Is this a common problem that HMRC refuses to pay tax refunds while you are being investigated by their Counter Avoidance team? The tax refund is for the last two years, while the investigation concerns 2012-14.

Yes, I also experienced this. The way I got it back was when I had to pay my payment on account for the following tax year, I paid it minus what they had held on account. No queries or dramas.

[Tynos]

Tax Refund During HMRC Investigation

I had an SA overpayment of about £2k a couple of years ago and tried valiantly to get a refund when between contracts.
Online requests, emails, phone calls all sent me round in circles with at best - your request has been passed on and you should get the refund within 4 weeks.
A month went by and I went through the same loop.
I think I also tried again a few months later but nothing came of it.
I was on the HMRC naughty list for appealing a CN.

I had to wait about a year till my next SA return and I just offset it against my payment.

[webberg]

Check out section 59 TMA 1970

[CanPayButWouldRatherNot]

a few people said you should take this out of what you owe them on your next tax return payment !

[webberg]

a few people said you should take this out of what you owe them on your next tax return payment !

Let's assume that you have a repayment for year 3 of £1,000 showing as a credit on your account.

In year 1 and 2 you have a dispute with HMRC but no APNs have been issued. You might though owe £10k.

Year 4 and 5 are neutral.

Year 6 you have a liability of say £800.

It's likely that HMRC will take the credit to pay the £800.

This reduces the credit to £200.

You then "agree" the years 1 & 2 and you owe £10k.

You have a credit of £200.

You pay interest on £10,000 from year 1/2 to the due date of year 3.

You pay interest on £9,800 from due date of year 3 to final payment date.

Alternatively you pay the £800 and get £1k of tax credit and less interest on the final settlement.

Do NOT expect HMRC to rearrange this sequence to your benefit. In theory they should. IN practice they do not because they do not understand the manner in which credits and debits are posted to the HMRC account. (It gets worse if you have APNs because they are in a separate account).

[inziderhh]

Hi boys and girls,

Thanks for all the replies.

I got my money (a few k we are talking). How did I do it - i used their complaint procedure. I sent them an email basically arguing that the investigation and the tax refund are two separate items. Also the investigation concerns earlier contractor years.

I received an email 4-5 weeks later, simply stating that the money could not be refunded due to a security concern but that this has been resolved now and that the money is in my account within 5-7 business days.

I called HMRC once before about this, and was told on the phone that this was due to the investigation so I really never bothered to get the money. But now it finally worked via the complaint procedure. Maybe it helps other people.

Thanks again.