ICAEW urges those owed monies from HMRC to claim now

If you are due for an income tax refund of Pay As You Earn (PAYE), claim now says the ICAEW. The message comes as HMRC plans to change over its IT system for PAYE, a process which is expected to take three weeks. Repayments during that time will undoubtedly take longer.

Anita Monteith, Technical Manager at the ICAEW Tax Faculty, said:

"HMRC has to update its IT systems which is never an easy thing. With HMRC's technology track record, there will no doubt be problems while the work takes place. There is no guarantee that it will be completed in three weeks. We think that this will extend the time taken for repayments involving PAYE which will be difficult, if not impossible during this time."

A tax refund may be due if you stop working partway through a tax year as you may have paid too much tax. This can happen if you were paying tax through PAYE as an employee and:

• You were only employed for part of the tax year - and didn't get any taxable state benefits for the rest of the tax year after you stopped working
• You retired part way through the tax year
• Your employer was using the wrong tax code
• You're a student and only worked in the holidays but didn't complete a form P38(S) Student Employees
• You were made redundant and couldn't get another job

Anita Monteith adds:

"Students especially should make sure they are not owed monies. Many only work for a short amount of time during the tax year or have worked during a gap year and may have overpaid their tax. The quickest way to get the money back is to submit a self-assessment form online. They should do this as soon as possible, especially if they need the money quickly for example to go travelling."

Further Information