Simple question really - tax payer signs the declaration to have a refund paid to someone else (ie their agent)
Do the Inland Revenue have a legal right to ignore it ?
Historically we have subby refunds paid to us, deduct our fee and pass on the balance. This year the tax man has decided to "overlook" these signed declarations and repay direct to the tax payer who thinks we have been paid (as in previous years) and spends the money quick leaving us unpaid.
Tax man states they have done nothing wrong and are not interested
Any comments ?
Replies (6)
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HMRC refund of tax
So..how does that fit on a separate situation - the accountant requested a refund of tax payable direct to him when submitting the client Tax Return 31 March 2007 with a proviso to HMRC to deduct sufficient tax for the Tax Return 31 March 2008 (both Returns were submitted at the same time - late!)
HMRC duly sent the full refund due re 2007 but failed to deduct the tax liability for 2008 which was in excess of that refund
The accountant then failed to forward the 2007 refund to the client and now claims he is on verge of bankruptcy and client is being chased by HMRC for the substantial tax due on 2008
Client had signed the Tax Returns
Seems to happen all the time
I'm afraid it's no comfort, but this almost seems to be the norm these days. I don't know why there's still a page on the SA return for the taxpayer to nominate someone else to receive refunds when HMRC seems to ignore this request in 99% of cases.
I have a client who negotiates complex share losses with HMRC and has always been paid out of the tax repayments, which have always been sent to him in the past. He is probably going to go bust this year as a result of HMRC sending virtually all of the repayments direct to the taxpayers who, as you have discovered, are remarkably reluctant to pay fees if the agreement was for them to have been deducted at source from the tax rebate.
HMRC refunds
In essence the tax refund belongs to the client, so even if there is an "agreement" to pay the agent instead, the money legally belongs to the client. By HMRC paying them direct they are doing nothing wrong, just not what each party wishes.
You need to explain to the client that HMRC has made an error and that they would normally have recieved the cheque from you, not HMRC. This year it has changed and that they have a legal obligation to pay you.
Explain to them that you have expenses to pay also and you were banking on the fact that you would have received the refund direct. As such you keep your costs to a minimum and this is passed on to them. Should they take a while to pay, you will have no option to pass the increased costs on to them in future years etc.
If they are just being awkward, discuss what the benefits of having a qualified advisor on their side are to them, when considering raising capital, recovery of overpaid taxes etc. Contrast this with them having to find another advisor, raising finance with no long standing advisor and a CCJ against their credit reference. Hopefully they will see the light.
Strange
We file nearly all our tax returns online through IRIS and they are auto-completed with our bank details for refunds.
I can't remember the last time that a refund didn't come to us.