To be VERY frustrated with HM Revenue because they won't give me MY money?

[edam]

Grrrr. If I owed them money they'd be on to me fast enough. But when they owe me apparently they can take as long as they want and have no idea when I might actually get my refund.

Money has been owing since 31st Jan when I did my self assessment. Great, nice to know I'm due a rebate. Claimed it online. Nothing happened, when I checked online it was still sitting there as if I hadn't claimed it. So filled in the form again. Nothing happened. Called them up and recorded message said it was taking up to four weeks from the date you claim it. Nothing happened. Called again, held on for ages, eventually got hold of someone, who tells me it's been 'called in for security checks' and they will write to me within six weeks to tell me what's going on. No promise of actually paying me my money and six more weeks will make it more than THREE months late.

Security checks my arse. They are supposed to transfer the money straight back into the account where it came from and that I have been using to pay them for the past FIVE years. Swines.

I deal with HMRC routinely for work, and while in the vast majority of cases refunds are processed as soon as the return goes in, or when we request if not return based, sometimes I do come across this "security check" thing.

see here

very annoying though

Thanks very much, Chasing. Any idea how long these 'security checks' take, or is it a piece of string question?

no idea sorry, they aren't something I come across all that often.

I got my refund within a few days of submitting tax return? sounds odd

oh i'm owed over £1k from august 2009!!!! STILL bloody waiting for paperwork to be sent from ex employer in order to 'process'.

losing the will to live over it now....... (slight exageration I know)

I still haven't got mine, I presumed this was normal - must chase up by the sounds of it.

You shouldn't need to chase unless it gets to the 3 month mark. It's getting increasingly common. Partly because of more stringent anti-money laundering checks by HMRC and partly because they have a new risk assessment IT system called Connect which will automatically flag your refund for security checks under some circumstances (you're much more likely to get checked if your refund is due to a PAYE coding error or if your income varies year on year).

There's an amusing blog called "HMRC is shite", which is worth a look.

I will go and look at that, Cinnabar... Is there really a three month wait? First I've heard of it, the first time I chased she told me it would be 14 days! And yes, my earnings have gone down, in common with loads of other self-employed people - in my field, especially, but probably across the board, I'd guess.

Libra, yes, do chase - the feckers don't actually bother to tell you if there are hold ups, from what the woman told me today, they just wait until you call. And the time limit for a response starts from your call, not from when they actually owe you!

Supa, that IS bad but no such excuse for the Revenue in my case - it's just between me and them (and it's their system that has come up with £700,

It means they may want to see all of your expenses in bill format.

They do this in around 1 in 1,000 returns.

Thing is I don't remember making a "claim" I just submitted my tax return and it said I would get a rebate (I only worked 3 out of the 12 months), I presumed the gov't took it from there. I don't have any expenses for them to look at.

Libra, I'm only guessing but I suspect your rebate has arisen because you had PAYE deducted in the first three months of the tax year (or you had a Month 1 PAYE code). Either would circumstance would withhold tax assuming that you would continue to earn for the full year so would only have given you 3/12th of your personal allowance. As it turns out, you didn't work for the full year, but were entitled to the full (12/12ths) personal allowance - hence the rebate. Technically you don't have to claim a rebate, you just submit a return showing your actually liability compared to the tax you suffered.

edam, not that it helps, but they'll pay you interest on the refund for the time they're holding it.

one of my clients paid online, but his bank didn't allow him to enter his reference number (or it may be that he forgot to enter it ), so his payment went into a holding account - we've spoken to HMRC and they've located the payment and are happy to agree that it's his, but still ahven't managed to allocate it to his account. So I go online, he's showing as owing a lot of money which they're adding interest too, and unless they get a move on, he'll get a fine added for late/non payment which we'll then have to faff around with appealing.

HMRC are incredibly overworked and understaffed, plus the computer systems are a nightmare and different departments find it hard to talk to each other.....

Oh Lord, fabby, so they are going to want to crawl all over my accounts? Blimey.

No, not neccessarily. They would have to
open an enquiry (in writing) if they want to review your records. From what you've described they haven't done that yet and there's no reason that the delayed refund means they're more likely to.

DP had exactly your situation last year (he changed jobs last year, from one with a company car to one without but his PAYE coding wasn't adjusted to reflect that. So he was due a massive rebate which
got held up in security checks). He didn't get an enquiry.

They held my refund up due to security checks last year, but wouldn't be specific as to why. I was confused, as I was claiming a refund exactly as I have for the past 3 years for overpaid tax as I earn under the threshold. All the details were the same, bank details the lot, but they still sat on my money.

Same happened to dh,

Keep hassling them, plead financial hardship each time, and tell them you really need it,

Then contact your local mp and ask him to write a letter to them, dh did that and the mp wrote, when they got his letter they released the money,

The reason they say security checking, is they are checking their own staff, to make sure they are not related to you, so they cant diddle figures, thats what they and the accountant said

Hth

Thanks very much for all the advice. Thankfully a taxwoman called today to tell me the money is on its way and should be in my account 'within a few days'. Sounds much better than the 'we'll write to you within six weeks' stuff the last person was telling me. Hope this one is accurate...