A Google search for something like ‘tax reclaim’ or ‘claim back tax’ will give you a page full of options, some of which will be more helpful than others. There are lots of companies out there who will offer to help you, most of them will charge you for the privilege, and not all of them will make it clear that they are charging you.
I tried it, and got some paperwork through from a company called the tax repayment agency, or something like that. It was the one that appeared near the top of the list, probably because they are paying google to advertise their services. It looked very official and asked me to complete a fact-find and send it back to them along with any P60s or P45s that were relevant to my claim.
Under the ‘What will happen’ section of the form I was then told that
“The Tax Repayment Agency will retain 40% excluding VAT for processing and administration. Terms & Conditions at www.taxrebate.co.uk\terms.pdf”
Forty percent! Wow. for doing something that I could do myself!
They are entitled to charge me. I’m not for a minute saying that they don’t have the right to charge for the work that they are doing. Unfortunately there are lots of people who will complete the forms, sign them and send them off and then wonder why they got less tax refunded that they thought they were entitled to.
There are also lots of ways to get the money you are owed back without paying away 40% of it. A simple phone call to HMRC will in many cases kick-start the process that will allow to you make a reclaim.
So we all need to be careful. There’s no point spending time claiming your money back from HMRC only to find out that somebody else is keeping nearly half of it.
And there are lots of other websites out there working in the same way and charging for services that you can get for nothing if you are just a bit more careful when carrying out an initial search. Take care before you sign anything, read the small print, and take the time to make sure you know who you’re asking to work for you.
I got the same letter. As soon as u saw the “what will happen next” section I knew something was wrong. 40%?! What a rip-off I thought this was hmrc who sent me this form so I started filling it out while reading through it. I guess I will have to just wait till maybe October/June for my rebate like last year. It is quite frustrating. All the information is on my payslip and hmrc should have everything already but got some reason when I call up they say they are still making calculations. Yeah ok. I earned under the threshold so all the tax I paid will be refunded so I don’t kno why calculatiosn thy need to make it’s all been made already.