Tax Refund And Self Assessment FAQ's

For the month of April, they are as follows:

PAYE: 5% of claim, with a minimum of £30

CIS Contractor : 5% of claim, with a minimum of £50

Ltd Co Director : From £60

Self Employed : From £60

Document Chasing: £15 per document

Refund Transfer to Overseas Account: £10

You will almost definitely be entitled to a refund if you satisfy any of the following criteria:

You are an overseas visitor working in the UK

You worked less than a full tax year

You earned less than the annual Tax Free Threshold (£6035 for 08/09)

You have been paying Emergency Tax

You work through CIS (Construction Industry)

Yes. Everyone, irrespective of nationality or passport is entitled to a tax claim if they have worked in the UK and been overtaxed during a tax year.

You are only obligated to submit a tax return if you are:

Ltd Co Director

Self Employed

CIS Contractor

Earn income from a property

Earn over £100k per year

You have been sent an SA100 Self Asessment Tax Return by the Inland Revenue

However it is always worth checking to see whether you are due a refund.

A Self Assessment Tax Return is a mandatory obligation that is required by law to be submitted by members of the categories stated in the question above. Inland Revenue impose a £100 fine if this is not done. The deadline for submitting paper returns is the 31st October and for submitting online is the 31st January.

A Tax rebate/refund/claim is simply an application to have any over paid PAYE tax in a given tax year returned to you by the Inland Revenue. It is not compulsory and there are no penalties of it not done, although it is highly recommended to undertake.

If you have earned less than the Tax Free Threshold in any given year, (08/09 year - £6035) you will be due 100% of your tax back. If you have earned more than the Tax Free Threshold, please use our online calculator for a tax back estimate.

One of two things:

1. Send us an email with your details and clearly state your employment status, namely: PAYE, Ltd Co Director, Self Employed or CIS.
or
2. Go to the Download page to download a questionnaire that applies to your employment status. This will start the process...;

Please ensure that you have all your P45s, P60s and/or Statements of Earnings.

P60 - Document detailing your earnings and tax paid during an employment until 5 April. Employers issue them at the end of the tax year. They only issue one.
Example.

P45 - Document detailing your earnings and tax paid during an employment.
Employers issue them when you leave an employment during a tax year. They only issue one.
Example.

SOE - Document on a company letterhead with the same details as the P60 and P45.
Payroll can issue more than one, and are necessary when P60's and P45's are missing.
Example.

CIS - (Construction Industry Scheme) Voucher issued monthly and at the end of an employment detailing your earnings and tax paid.

If you are still working in the UK, you may submit a claim after the end of the tax year (5 April). If you have left the UK or are leaving during a tax year, you may submit a claim at any time.

You can claim up to 6 years in the past. Currently from the 6 April 2003 onwards.

A claim may be made using a temporary NI number or even without one, although the claim may be dealt with less efficiently and with more delays. An NI number allows Revenue to locate your tax records, although there are other pieces of information that will bring up the information they need such as address, post code etc.

Yes. CIS contractors are taxed at a high rate and are not allocated a tax free allowance. CIS contractors are also allowed to claim for any work expenses such as tools, clothing, travel, professional fees, phone etc. as long as you have a receipt to prove the purchase.

No, you are required to declare each and every income you had during the tax year. This even applies to jobs as short as a couple of days.

If your tax code contains any of the following as a prefix or suffix : W1, M1, BR, X, WK1, MTN, you are paying emergency tax. This happens if your employer is unsure how much you should be taxed and as such you are taxed on a weekly or monthly basis as opposed to an annual basis.

You will find your tax code on your payslips, P45s and P60s.

From the 6 April to the 5 April of the following year.

Inland Revenue give a timeframe of 4 – 8 weeks for a claim to be processed and the refund to be received. The average turnaround time however is about 6 weeks.

You have a choice.

Option 1. The cash goes directly from the Inland Revenue to you. This ensures that there is no risk of not receiving your refund for any reason and aims to give you peace of mind. This is the preferred option.

Option 2. Your refund goes to Claimtax first, from which we deduct our fee and send the remainder to your UK or overseas account.

No, there is no need for Claimtax to be bonded to the ATA.

The ATA is body that guarantees the refund of a client if the company claiming on their behalf goes out of business. However the companies that the ATA warns against operate differently to Claimtax in that they receive the clients (your) refund first, into the company account and then take their commission from that amount and pass the remainder on to you. Therefore the danger of losing your refund if these companies go out of business is real. This is the way that 99% of companies offering tax rebates work.

Claimtax is different. While we do offer the option for our clients’ refunds to come to us first, our suggested option is to instruct Revenue to send your refund directly to your bank account or your address from the outset and at no time do we see or have any control over the money you are due to receive from Revenue. In this way, even in the highly unlikely event of Claimtax going out of business, there is no risk whatsoever of your money going missing or not being received by you.

Excel is very user friendly and simple to use in order to provide the details required for the completion of tax documents. Clients are able to add sections and columns if necessary and are equally able to easily make amendments if they need to. Excel is also a very widely used program and most people and business have access to it. In the arre eent of a client not having access to it, we are able to change the file format to suit.