Following the end of a tax year, if you have paid either too little or too much income tax, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will provide you with a P800 tax calculation to confirm your position.

Previously, if you were due a refund of overpaid tax, a cheque would be issued to you automatically within 21 days of the calculation being sent, if this hadn’t been claimed online. However, since 1^st June 2024, cheque payments are no longer automatic. Instead, individuals will need to claim their tax refund online, by telephone, or via the HMRC app. If left unclaimed, the refund will not be received.

Typically, you have four years to claim a refund, after which the tax year becomes ‘closed’ to claims and it is not usually possible to receive the payment unless it can be proven that it arose due to ‘official error’ on HMRC’s part. For instance, if a refund is due for the 2020/21 tax year, you typically have until 5^th April 2025 to claim this.

The current payment options for receiving a refund are:

• Bank transfer payment
• Cheque payment

At present, the timescales for receiving refunds are:

• 5 working days if you have claimed online and requested a bank transfer
• 6 weeks if you have asked HMRC to send you a cheque

For more information on the refund process and how to claim, you can visit: https://www.gov.uk/tax-overpayments-and-underpayments/if-youre-due-a-refund

At Eldon, we regularly check our clients’ tax positions and documentation to ensure that everything is as expected. It is important that individuals keep on top of their affairs in this respect, particularly now that the onus of claiming tax overpayments has shifted towards the taxpayer.

If you would like to speak to a member of the team about any of the above, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.