nai_in_av

I received a P91 last week asking me to enter details of my employment in the UK from Oct 21st 2005. I thought it was a bit odd getting this form as I had left the UK on Oct 26th 2005, and had submitted the P85 form around that date.

This morning I called the HM Revenue to find out what (if anything) I should do with the form. I explained to the person I spoke to that I had not worked in the UK since that date as I was out of the country. She then told me to simply write a letter explaining this and return it to them, I then told her that I had actually left permanently and submitted a P85 form and wondered if the P91 was related to that (as I had heard nothing about the P85).

At this point she told me that it was possible that my P85 had been mislaid (lost) and to submit another one, as I would possibly be owed some tax. So now I am wondering if I should have heard anything about the P85?..... Is it possible that I would have been entitled some kind of tax return? I had worked full time up until I left work on Oct 21st........ when completing my 2nd P85 I have not been able to submit parts 2 and 3 of my P45 as I already submitted them, is this likely to be a problem? (I included a note explaining why the P45 parts were not with the P85 this time). Has anyone else submitted a P85 and heard nothing and got no rebate? or had theirs lost?

dbj1000

Yes!

When we left the UK my wife and I both submitted P85 forms. I had been made redundant just before the end of the previous tax year, and so they owed me nothing in tax rebates. My wife had earned a significant amount during the current tax year, and was owed all her tax back... but at the time we didn't know it.

Neither of us heard anything back from the Inland Revenue.

Three years later, thanks to Bob here on BE, we realized that my wife was owed her tax back. After over 10 calls to the Inland Revenue, during which she was told that the form had been incorrectly filed, lost, found but returned to our old address, lost again, put into the system under someone else's name, filed as a company director and finally "burned in a fire", they told her to file another one.

It took another 10 weeks, and many more calls before they sent her a rebate check. During that time they said they'd sent it, it had been lost, she wasn't owed anything and then that they'd send another one.

The Inland Revenue are apparently not only massively incompetent, but are also prepared to lie in a variety of ways in order to either just get you off the phone, or avoid paying money they owe you.

File another P85, but also insist on talking to a supervisor, and demand that they explain what happened to your old P85. Their first response that "oh, we probably lost it" is typically a lie intended to make you someone else's problem.

jen_andreson

We both got refunds, but it took some work. We sent our P85s and about a month later each received a letter from IR asking for our P60s for the previous year. We sent those off, and asked that they be returned to us (which they were in the end). Then, I got asked to submit receipts for some of items, such as professional memberships, etc. Both of us elected the direct deposit option for the refund, as we sent the papers just before we moved here. As we'd moved by the time they made the later requests it took some time--waiting for post to be forwarded here and then forms sent back to them.

I made a photocopy of the P45 and the P60s before we posted them--just in case.

I got my refund in about 3 months, and my husband his in about 2 months. Mine took some chasing--a few phone calls. We had different IR offices, which perhaps accounts for the time difference. However, the refunds were substantial--I forget the exact amounts but think one was a thousand quid and one even more. Worth chasing up-

GaryK

In addition to that, sometimes carbon-copying your correspondence to your MP might help. MPs' offices have access to an HMRC hotline (where even MPs' staff have to hold for quite a while to get through). Having been a caseworker, I can tell you that things can be fixed very quickly if necessary!

Bob

I didn't have any problems with my P-85, got a cheque in about 3 months...but my difference was, I filled the forms, bunged it together and sent it to my mother to take it to the local inland rev office because I knew my mother was going to the office anyway, and the bloke filed it all away and wrote her some receipt for it.

As to how much you get back, that'll depend on how much you earned, and when you left.