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Out of control

04 March 2014 / Alex Byrne
Issue: 4442 / Categories: Comment & Analysis , Business , Employees , Income Tax

Claiming a construction industry scheme refund can be an overlong process

KEY POINTS

  • Repayment claims were once an HMRC priority but it seems that they no longer are.
  • HMRC request information that they already hold.
  • Could a reconciliation request evolve into an enquiry?
  • HMRC policy regarding the provision of information has changed.
  • Signs of similar problems arising with real time information reconciliations.

Many years ago I remember HMRC’s attitude to tax repayments was that claims should be treated as a priority because they involved the taxpayer’s money. Repayment claims were dealt with urgently.

We have slipped a long way from that in recent years with HMRC sometimes taking up to six months to make repayments. Even with the carrot of faster repayments for online filing offered under self assessment repayments are “subject to security checks” which can still take...

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