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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

Anyone Else Experienced HMRC Snaffling 2015/16 Overpayments for SECOND 2016/17 Payment on Account?

Lambs
Posts:1611
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:15 pm
Anyone Else Experienced HMRC Snaffling 2015/16 Overpayments for SECOND 2016/17 Payment on Account?

Postby Lambs » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:32 am

Dear All,

When looking at the Self Assessment interim payments due 31 July 2017, I have noticed a couple of instances where HMRC appears to have taken the overpayments arising for 2015/16 against the first AND second PoAs - in December 2016 / January 2017. In other words, large overpayments have been taken to cover liabilities not falling due for another 6 months!

I seem to recall that HMRC's stated policy is something like 45 days - if a liability is set to fall due within the following 45 days, then they will hold on to it / sufficient to cover the impending liability. This 45 days was originally supposed to be 30 days, but they stretched it by a further fortnight to cover delays in processing, or issuing Statements of Account, or some such.

Has anyone else come across this rather more aggressive approach?

Regards,

Lambs

SteLacca
Posts:448
Joined:Fri Aug 07, 2015 2:17 pm

Re: Anyone Else Experienced HMRC Snaffling 2015/16 Overpayments for SECOND 2016/17 Payment on Account?

Postby SteLacca » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:45 am

Were the repayments claimed on the 2015/16 Returns? If not, then I'd expect HMRC to set-off the resultant credit against future liabilities.

If so, why was the fact it wasn't repaid not chased up sooner?

D&C
Posts:61
Joined:Thu Dec 22, 2016 10:04 pm

Re: Anyone Else Experienced HMRC Snaffling 2015/16 Overpayments for SECOND 2016/17 Payment on Account?

Postby D&C » Mon Jul 10, 2017 9:57 pm

Lambs,

Haven't you explained this in your own post.

There is an overpayment from 2015:16 which was used to clear the first payment on account for 2016:17. Any additional balance has sat on the clients statement of account for the past few months and is now being used, within the 45 day window you refer to, to pay the second payment on account for 2016:17.

I suspect the real issue here is that you haven't had reason to look at the statement in the interim between January and now when the second payment on account for 2016:17 would have been unpaid with a larger credit balance being carried forward?

Lambs
Posts:1611
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:15 pm

Re: Anyone Else Experienced HMRC Snaffling 2015/16 Overpayments for SECOND 2016/17 Payment on Account?

Postby Lambs » Mon Jul 10, 2017 10:18 pm

Hi No, funds were taken in December and January not June /July. If the returns were NOT marked for a repayment then I would be perfectly happy with HMRC taking the credit against liabilities as they fell due but that is not what has happened. In one case a repayment was issued to the client in February that was light by the second PoA and in the other the allocation to 2nd PoA was partly offset by the balance of the credit in excess of the first PoA but this adjustment happened in January.

I infer that this is not a common occurrence, givenue the nature of the replies.

Thanks all,

Lambs

robbob
Posts:3228
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:01 pm

Re: Anyone Else Experienced HMRC Snaffling 2015/16 Overpayments for SECOND 2016/17 Payment on Account?

Postby robbob » Tue Jul 11, 2017 12:31 pm

It takes very little for the hmrc computer to not automatically process a rebate - in my experience when i have asked them specifically why this has happened - they have normally been able to confirm as to why the payment wasn't automatically processed under most circumstances. so if hmrc are snaffling rebates well in advance of future payments here i would like to think hmrc will be able to confirm this when pushed with a specific example so they have the info for that client on screen.

In my experience if the refund process is not automatically done by the computer, then hmrc manual intervention procedures are so slow as to be non existent - albeit when they are poked with the prodding stick they normally sort things promptly, this being case its always best to keep something to poke them with handy.

I am presuming that the full formal request for repayment has been completed by selecting the method of repayment on the tax return return, leaving the refund request details blank will from memory i think leave the credit sat on account as default.

This is quite an uncommon scenario although, there will always be a couple of cases like this each year for us so it is useful to know the answer so that one can be prepared with stick or not as may be the case.


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