Income tax refund

[scaryteacher]

Had a letter telling me how much my refund would be mid September after tax return processed. Rang to see when it would hit my account to be told that the refund had been stopped, as it was undergoing more security checks. What would those be? They couldn't actually tell me. The refund is just over £300, from my GCSE marking, as I don't earn anything else.

Are they making sure you are who they think you are? 'Security checks' is an odd phrase from the tax office.

Do they refund straight away then? Just done dhs and he is due a refund and I assumed we would have to wait until next year. Be nice to get it quickly!

Refunds should be given out fairly quickly - especially if you put your bank details on the return and they can do the refund electronically. Cheques take much longer as they want to discourage people requesting a refund this way.

I have never heard of a refund being stopped by HMRC - (I work for an accountant and deal with TRS quite a bit), surely they would not issue it in the first place if they did not know who you were -

They know who I am, as they have been giving me refunds on the same basis for the last 3 years, into my bank account. I find it confusing that I have the letter dated 17/09 telling me what I'm due and then I have to ring again after mid October if it isn't in there.

Nymph - they normally refund in a couple of months. I'm wondering if they doing a sneaky check to see if dh has an underpayment; which they are not allowed to do.

Refunds are stopped all the time, for a variety of reasons.

Don't be too hard on the staff you speak to on the phone. They don't know what the checks are, it's to do with the processing office. It could be anything really, but it's not something to worry about and they will release the payment eventually.

NYmph, they will try to aviod coughing up for as long as poss and will try to get away with giving you cash by having it put in his code for next year.

Phone them tomorrow to tell them they must pay into your bank immediately. YOur money, NOT theirs to pay up as & when they please.

THey will also muck you about and pretend you cannot deal with DH's affairs. ASk them for the current solution to this which will probably involve DH writing a letter to say you can d/w his affairs, and that operators should refer to household notes section on his file when you talk to them in order to confirm this.

Eventually is not good enough. They have sent me a letter telling me I am due my refund (which I already knew was due), so why not refund it?

I am not hard on the people who answer the phone as I am only too aware that they do not know what they are talking about, as when I have a technical query they have to get a real tax officer to ring me back; and they have tried to give me incorrect information in the past that I knew to be wrong from the HMRC website.