Important changes to the time limits for repayment claims

• From 1 April 2010, the rules for claiming income tax repayments are changing and you will only be able to claim for 4 back tax years instead of 6 years as currently.
• It is important you make any claims for back years as early as possible to avoid the possibility of losing the right to claim for the earliest years.
• At present claims can usually only be made up to five years after 31 January following the end of the tax year in which tax was overpaid. So a claim for the tax year 2003/04, which ended 5 April 2004, must be made by 31 January 2010.
• In very limited circumstances the time limit can be extended, for example where the overpayment of tax occurred because of a mistake or error by HMRC or another government department and the facts are undisputed.
• As mentioned above, for claims made on or after 1 April 2010, the time limit for claiming a refund is reduced to four years from the end of the relevant tax year. A tax year ends on 5 April so a claim for the tax year 2006/2007, which ended 5 April 2007, must be made by 5 April 2011.

But watch out! A claim for the tax year 2004/2005, which ended 5 April 2005, must be made before 1 April 2010. If the claim is made on or after 1 April 2010, the time limit is reduced to four years from the end of the relevant tax year, and it will have already been exceeded.

Claiming your repayment

• The Revenue 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 the Revenue 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 Revenue 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.