Taxpayers must take action to receive P800 refunds

Changes to the P800 end of year reconciliation process for taxpayers and pensioners within the PAYE system will mean people will need to contact HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to trigger an immediate payment of refunds.

The Tax Faculty has some reservations about the changes to the P800 process, reporting to HMRC that the changes may not make it quicker or easier for taxpayers to get their refunds.

Taxpayers that are due for a repayment for the 2015/16 financial year will no longer be sent this directly after the P800 is issued. Instead, they are required to log in to their Personal Tax Account and submit their bank details in to receive the refund. However, if neither of these things occur, HMRC will subsequently send the refund on after 45 days.

The new procedure will be tested over the next few weeks and is due to go live for all relevant taxpayers from 22^nd August 2016. Those taxpayers that have authorised their tax agent to receive their repayment will not be able to use the online repayment service.

HMRC said in its update email: “In the first two weeks of August we’ll be testing how this works with a proportion of our customers owed a tax rebate.

“Then from 22 August, providing everything is working as it should, we will write to all those customers who have paid too much tax inviting them to use their Personal Tax Account to get their rebate quicker.

“Later this year we’ll be introducing an online payment service for those customers who haven’t paid enough tax through PAYE and we’ll be taking a similar approach both with our stakeholders and with our customers.

“Further updates on the Personal Tax Accounts, the Business Tax Accounts, Making Tax Digital and Agent Services will continue to be provided through regular briefings to professional bodies, stakeholders, Agent Update, agent emails and posts on the HMRC Tax Agent Blog.”

Last updated: 5th August 2016