Taxpayers must apply to HMRC for immediate PAYE refunds

Taxpayers who have signed up to their personal tax account will not receive a refund arising from their 2015-16 P800 within a few days of receipt of the statement as would have happened in previous years.

Instead HMRC expects them to access their account and submit their bank details to obtain the refund. Alternatively they can phone the Revenue to ask for it. If they do neither HMRC will send the refund after 
45 days.

Taxpayers who have authorised their agent to receive their repayment will not be able to use the online repayment service.

Later this year HMRC plans to introduce an online payment service that will take a similar approach for taxpayers who have underpaid tax through PAYE.

This change of procedure is outlined in an email to tax advisers who are signed up to receive HMRC updates. Extracts from the email are...