Have you overpaid tax on your savings income?

• Tax is automatically taken off the interest on your savings at 20%.
• If you are on a low income, you may be able to get back some or all of the tax you've paid. To do this you need to fill in a claim form and we explain how to do that later on on this page.
• In most cases you will get back the tax you have overpaid as long as you claim on time. The time limits for claiming a refund are shown in the table below. You must make any claim before the deadline for that tax year - late claims are not allowed unless HMRC has made a mistake in which case the time limit may be extended.

Time limits for claiming back tax

• Tax year 2004/05 (year ended 05 April 2005) - you must claim by 31 January 2011
  
• Tax year 2005/06 (year ended 05 April 2006) - you must claim by 31 January 2012
• Tax year 2006/07(year ended 05 April 2007) - you must claim by 31 March 2012
• Tax year 2007/08 (year ended 05 April 2008) - you must claim by 05 April 2012
• Tax year 2008/09 (year ended 05 April 2009) - you must claim by 05 April 2013
• Tax year 2009/10 (year ended 05 April 2010) - you must claim by/05 April 2014

Claiming your repayment

• HMRC have a special form for claiming repayments where you have overpaid tax on bank and building society interest or retirement annuities. It is called a R40.



• If you have already filled in a form R40 in earlier years - you should receive one automatically each tax year. The form will show the Claim Office where you need to send in the completed R40.



• If you have not filled in any repayment claims previously then you can get form R40 from any tax office or download it here. The form comes with guidance notes to help you. When it is complete, send it to Leicester tax office Use the link to get the details of the address and phone number. It is helpful if you can include your National Insurance number on the form and in any accompanying letter.



• You do not need to send certificates and bank statements with your claim but HMRC may ask to see them and, if they do, they will need to see the originals. You should keep this paperwork for at least 2 years from the end of the tax year for which the claim is made.



• You may not get an interest certificate automatically, but you can ask the bank or building society to send you one. The bank or building society have to send you a certificate free of charge if you ask for one and they have not sent one out before. Do bear in mind that if you are asking for a duplicate, the bank or building society may make a charge so it is usually best to find out how much one will cost.



• You should also keep dividend vouchers, as you will need to include the dividend and its associated 10% tax credit on the repayment claim.



• According to the HMRC website repayment claims will be dealt with in around 15 days but the guidance notes to the form R40 say 28 days depending on the time of year. However between April and September following the end of the tax year there may be delays as this is the most popular time for sending in the forms.



• You need not wait until the end of the tax year to make a claim.



• If instead, you have a PAYE overpayment on your pension you should not complete form R40. Instead you should write to the Tax Office at the address on your coding notice. There is also a telephone number shown for the Contact Centre which you can use if you wish to speak to someone about making a repayment claim. At the current time however, it is not possible to make the repayment claim itself over the phone.



• You can find more information on the form and how it works using the link to the HMRC guide - Getting tax-free interest on savings or claiming tax back.