PAYE Refund Farce At HMRC

PAYE Refund Farce At HMRC

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Sorry just need to rant about the lack of help from HMRC. Client (small Ltd company) has a 3 employee payroll, one on maternity leave for much of 2013/14 tax year. This has left a large overpayment on their PAYE account as the SMP is well in excess of the tax due. I called the Employer's Helpline in June and, after explaining how the overpayment occurred, was promised that a refund had been requested and that it "would take a while to process but a cheque will be sent to registered address by July 25th at the latest". July 25th came and went. No refund. I called again on August 7th only to be told it was the HMRC payment enquiry line who would deal with this. Called them and they said there was no record of my initial conversation in June. HMRC member of staff was quite sympathetic and promised someone would call me back "within 3 working days". No phone call received so I called the Payment Support Helpline again today only to be told the refund WAS showing as requested in June but, as processing times had changed, the refund wouldn't be through until September 19th. Only line of recourse would be to put in a hardship request (including copies of client bank statements, overdue supplier statements etc). I really wanted to moan about how difficult it is to get a refund from them when there is a clear reason why money is owed. The refund is just over £4k. If the boot was on the other foot and my client didn't pay their PAYE / VAT for 6 months.......... ..I just wondered how everyone else has found the system for PAYE refunds. Why do HMRC have to make such hard work of every situation???

Replies (17)

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By stratty
19th Aug 2014 16:59

AAM

Is it worth discussing with your Agent Account Manager (if you have registered for that service).

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Replying to paul.benny:
Johny Fartpants Picture
By johnny fartpants
19th Aug 2014 17:12

Might Try It

I might try this although my previous experience of this service was that you got to talk to a nice person from HMRC but still took ages to get anything sorted. This was for another PAYE refund. It seems very strange that getting refunds for personal tax & CIS seems to be pretty straight forward but PAYE is a real nightmare. Frustrated with the inconsistency between services.

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By The Innkeeper
19th Aug 2014 20:59

We have a similar
Situation concerning a client who is owed c£8k. We have been told client will not get money until October.

Seriously thinking of stat demanding Ms Homer

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
20th Aug 2014 10:52

.

We have the same, it happens every single year.

I tell client to not expect it before their Christmas tree is up, and if it is, well that is a bonus. 

The most stupid thing is the letters they send out asking under what circumstances we made the "overpayment".  When it would seem to me pretty obvious if a human looked at the file. 

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Replying to LJCASE:
RLI
By lionofludesch
20th Aug 2014 11:28

Ridiculous!

ireallyshouldknowthisbut wrote:

The most stupid thing is the letters they send out asking under what circumstances we made the "overpayment".  When it would seem to me pretty obvious if a human looked at the file. 

Look at the file ?  Never heard of such a thing !!

 

Well, not since they started closing down local offices, anyway ...............

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By Andrew Mann Keytime
20th Aug 2014 11:40

I am wondering why wasn't a claim made for funding directly from HMRC during the course of 2013/14? 

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Replying to lionofludesch:
Johny Fartpants Picture
By johnny fartpants
20th Aug 2014 21:32

I wish I had

Hi Hanymann. I offered this to my client but said I would have to charge £40+VAT (which I didn't think was excessive as the form is a bit tricky). The client said they would rather wait it out than pay this. I'm just frustrated because I may have well as done this for free. I've now wasted much more time on this than if I had requested the advance funding for free! I suppose I'll have to put this down to experience as client's are on fixed fee basis. Ironically my experience of the advance funding is that repayments are made within two weeks almost without fail.

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Replying to sjmaccounting:
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By Maslins
22nd Aug 2014 15:29

Advance maternity req = good, otherwise = bad

johnny fartpants wrote:

Ironically my experience of the advance funding is that repayments are made within two weeks almost without fail.

That's been our experience too.  They do seem to provide advance cash for maternity very swiftly.

However I'm also extremely aware chasing a PAYE refund for any other reason is a nightmare, often taking 3+ months.  Most common one for us is high flyer previously on big salary, drops down to tiddly NIC threshold salary, hence monthly PAYE rebate due.  HMRC's attitude is always "offset it against future PAYE liabilities"...of which of course typically there won't be any.

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By ann domonkos
20th Aug 2014 12:15

We are in the same boat this is a transcript of the phone call

I have spoken to the helpline again today and they have confirmed that the amount of £3075.14 is showing as overpaid and to be refunded.  Unfortunately, they are behind with the refunds, as there were more than they thought in that period!  The person I spoke to said that the file 

showed their payment by date of 25th July has now been extended to 22nd August but he will put a note on the file to say we are chasing

and need the refund asap....

 

Luckily my client has no a cash flow problem but that isn,t the point....i wonder if it will arrive in August.

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By User deleted
21st Aug 2014 09:20

Still trying to work out ...

... why JFP has an avatar of Roger Mellie!

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Replying to Soletrader:
Johny Fartpants Picture
By johnny fartpants
22nd Aug 2014 11:39

Had This Before

Hi Old Greying Accountant. We have had this discussion before. I can't seem to find a pdf of Johnny FP anywhere. Please provide a link if you can help. Otherwise I'll have to stick with Roger's picture!!

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By User deleted
22nd Aug 2014 12:03

I did wonder if we did ...

... but I forget, who are you anyway - lol

pm me an e-mail addy, I might have something!

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
22nd Aug 2014 12:09

.

Re the highly important issue of Mr Fartpants images, he appears on several T-shirts. Not that I would suggest for a minute a right click of said image, save on your desktop and then printing to a PDF if you don't have a convertor, as this would of course breach the copyright of the image owner. 

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By Uncle Mick
22nd Aug 2014 13:53

A similar case to the above...

I asked the client to notify us when they received a refund. They rang a few weeks ago to say it had been received but when I checked the figure it was the advance funding for 2014/15. Pursued the matter with HMRC and asked where the cheque was for 2013/14, which we had asked for in February 2014. Oh dear said the lady, it doesn`t seem to have been processed, I`ll e-mail the issuing department and sort it out for you. Oh good says I, when can the client expect it? You should get a reply by 16th October!  Really!

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By cooperacc
22nd Aug 2014 15:50

Refund


I apply online and normally it gets processed within 2 weeks whether SMP, or SSP. Then you can apply for the exact amount you need and I've had no issues.

www.gov.uk/recover-statutory-payments/if-you-cant-afford-to-make-payments

 

 

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Johny Fartpants Picture
By johnny fartpants
21st Oct 2014 16:35

Update / Rant

Just to update on my (much) earlier post, no refund came through on Sept 19th so called PAYE "helpline" again today. Apparently the overpayment has been re-allocated to offset the nil tax incurred so far in the 2014/15 tax year (despite (a) me requesting and getting a refund for the current year's element of the SMP, (b) all my previous requests for a refund direct to my client and (c) all RTI returns for the 2014/15 tax year showing no tax and NI incurred. Definitely one for my Agent Account Manager to deal with. Just posting for anyone in similar position in future. Advice is don't even bother talking to PAYE lot. As "stratty" said in his initial post, go to your AAM for help!!

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By cooperacc
22nd Oct 2014 12:07

Online much faster

I used to have a lot of trouble with refunds for statutory payments but I always use the online method now and normally get the refund out within 14 days. Which helps the client/agent relationship no end.

 

www.gov.uk/recover-statutory-payments/if-you-cant-afford-to-make-payments

 

 

 

 

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