Where’s My Tax Refund?

This is a question we often get asked by clients. HMRC expect all taxpayers to pay their taxes on time and robustly ’police’ this system if this does not happen, but are often accused of double standards when the tax is moving in the opposite direction.

There is an online facility to check with HMRC what their current expected timeframe is for dealing with something:

• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-expect-a-reply-from-hmrc

This is currently estimating refund periods as follows:

• NIC                               7 months
• s455 tax                       10 weeks
• Inheritance tax           6 weeks
• CIS                                5 weeks
• Corporation tax          5 weeks
• VAT                               1 month
• Stamp Duty                1 month
• PAYE                            4 weeks
• Income tax                  2 weeks

Apart from the initial 2 taxes, ostensibly not too unreasonable you may think. However, our experience at the coal face suggests that these numbers flatter the reality.