I am owed money by the Taxman, a lot of money and 6 months down the line they have still not paid up. Is there anything legal that I could do to make them cough up ?

[HelenBalham]

[redcrx]

usually, the tax man pays up promptly when faced with the prrof they owe a refund.
Have you actually checked with them to see if they agree they owe you and how much

[HelenBalham]

I have provided all documents necessary and more. They wrote to me back in February to say how much. That was to confirm rebate to end of December 2009. I then provided proof of income from January this year. Tax was being deducted on BR cumulative and WK 1 basis. After weeks of trying to get through by phone. Finally reached them one Saturday morning after having holding on for 1.2hr. Verbal confirmation of refund for this year. I have written to them on a weekly basis basically saying you have confirmed amount - where is it. Absolutely furious as finances critical at the moment

[HelenBalham]

I was wondering if there was some sort of legal statute or something whereby if they have stated what your rebate is, then they should refund within a given period ???

[vulcan]

I had this problem last year.They owed me nearly £5000 and even though i had letters from them stating this was the agreed amount no amount of phone calls or letters produced the money.This lasted nearly nine months, I eventually visited the local tax office to be told" We can sort that out straight away".I was also told they would pay me, through the bank, electronically and I thought this would in the bank in a few hours. I was told "allow ten days"!
So, I suggest a quick visit to your local tax office

[dzug2]

.<< I have written to them on a weekly basis basically saying you have confirmed amount >>

Every time you do that your file goes to the back of the queue - or so rumour has it.

Once it's a year overdue you get interest

[Skyline D]

Just to be clear, you've been over-taxed for the tax year 2009/10 because your code was wrong for PAYE?

That being the case there's no chance you were going to get any refund before the end of the tax year. They've found out too late to update your code for last year most likely and they can't do any physical refund until the end of the tax year. They can do it now though. They'll have been able to do it for a maximum of maybe 6 weeks. You might need to do a tax return although if they've agreed a figure that's unlikely. Phone them again and ask where it is. I had one for a client last year they just sat on for no apparent reason and claimed that they had been "waiting further instruction". No idea why they did that but to be fair it isn't like them and when contacted about it they had it paid over in a few days.

[HelenBalham]

I work as a temp and with the market being as is; some times bookings can last days, some times weeks. Every time I changed agencys they put me on BR or WK1. This is a tax rebate going back over 3/4 years.

It is impossible to get them on the phone. Will keep trying

[HelenBalham]

I dont think there are any tax offices left in London. All the address I have are miles out; like Portsmouth or Glasgow

[chokkie]

I suggest you contact your local MP and ask them to contact HMRC. Alternatively, you should contact the financial ombudsman. However, there's slow, and then there's HMRC slow - they are appallingly snail-like!

[Nosha123]

its impossible to get the on the phone when they want our money too.. they threatened us with bailiffs if we didnt cough up and told us to call their number to avoid legal action.. trouble is - no-one ever answered it! So I couldnt call them!
I had written asking them for time to pay the bill - which they ignored also...

Its a wonder they manage to get anything done there really!

Cameron should make a few cut backs of his own - and get rid of the rubbish workers!!

[vulcan]

I've just found this,
http://search2.hmrc.g...or/locator.jsp?type=1
I put in London but it said be more specific, so you might be able to track down a local office.

[dzug2]

<Cameron should make a few cut backs of his own - and get rid of the rubbish workers>

I doubt if having enough staff to process tax returns will be high on his priority list - expect even longer delays in future.

[Skyline D]

There's certainly no reason they shouldn't be repaying an agreed rebate for any tax year up to and including the year ended 5th April 2009. They can't possibly have agreed a rebate to the end of December 2009 any earlier than 6th April 2010 though. That doesn't make sense.

I suppose inevitably different tax offices will have varying degrees of difficulty in getting in touch with them. I've never had any real problem at all getting hold of them when I need to but then I'm based in Scotland and have never had to phone tax offices in South England.

[HelenBalham]

I have a bona fide letter from the tax man, saying this is my refund to date - which would have been up to the end of December, as that is all the paperwork they had. They then said they would consider a further refund for this year/ end April 2010 when they had the paperwork

They have had the paperwork and more - and still no sight of my refund

Totally hacked off

[boxtops]

Did they say they were sending a cheque or putting it in your bank account direct, or intending to give it to you by adjusting your code for the 2010-11 earnings? If it's the direct bank payment then you need to double-check that they have your correct banking details?