How to get UK Tax adjusted?

[suej]

Would somebody advise/reassure please...

We are resident in France, both 70+, husband receives company pension and State old age pension, I receive Government pension and State Pension.

Earlier this year, after benefitting from all the advice etc on this forum, we submitted all the relevant tax forms including France Individual forms.

We recently received our Avis d'Impots,( and, phew,rather less than we expected) and have duly payed that.

So far so good , everything seems to be in order over here- I think ..

We have, however heard nothing from HMRC - we both continue to pay tax PAYE in UK and have had no notice of changes to our tax codings or reimbursement of taxes paid.

 Have I over-looked some massively important step?  What should I do next?

Do I need to contact HMRC? If so, at one central office or at each separate tax office that deals with us?

I really don't know what I should be doing at this stage and would appreciate a shove in the right direction.

Thanks, Sue

[Will]

Yes, you do need to inform HMRC - the Centre for non-Residents - that you are no longer taxable in the UK on some of your pensions (though as you will have seen from the other topics your government pension, though neither the state pension nor the company pension, remains taxable in UK). There are forms for doing this, claiming exemption from tax, and to apply for repayment on tax already paid.

See here.

Note that the forms must be sent, initially, to your French tax office, and they will certify that you are French tax resident and send them on to HMRC. There are full explanatory notes with the forms.

[suej]

  Thanks for such a quick reply Will !

 I have looked at that link but I find that the double taxation forms that are referred to there are the " Form France-Individual" that we filled in, English and French versions, and handed in at our local Impots office along with our declarations  so those have already gone.

I think I've started to panic and to wonder if there is something else apart from these Form France-Individuals that I should have done..

Thanks all the same

 

 

[Will]

If you have filled in and submitted those forms, then the process is in motion. Unfortunately neither the French nor the British tax offices are known for their speed of working. There is a contact number in the notes for the relevant HMRC office - you could always give them a call to make sure that you have done all you need to do.

[suej]

 

 

 Right thanks Will, that has set my mind at rest.. At least it seems that I haven't dropped a big clanger anywhere. Perhaps it's just a case of expecting too much too soon on my part!

[Patf]

I had to wait over a year before hearing from HMRC.

As Will says, you could try ringing them. This is the number I rang first ( Nottingham):   0044 151 210 2222

Then later this dept. at Bradford:  0044 845 302 1414

The people I spoke to were very helpful.

[Chrissie]

We filled out the forms three times and handed them into the local office.  Each time, I explained what needed to be done.  They never got to the UK.  The third time, I had taken copies and sent them to the UK myself (I had phoned and explained my problem.) They accepted these.

All this meant, of course, that there was a huge backlog of repayments to take place........ Sigh of relief when these finally came through.

I would advise you to keep in contact with the UK office to see when and if the forms ever arrive.

Chrissie (81)

[suej]

 

Thank you Patf.  A year - and I'm making a fuss after 4 or 5 months!

All the same I'll make a note of those numbers and may well ring.

While you were waiting for them to contact you I assume they continued to deduct UK tax?

Did they eventually refund this to you automatically or did you have to send off a claim for a refund?

If so any chance you remember which forms you had to get hold of?

Sorry if I'm going on but I've spent the past hour  reading HMRC site and I'm fast becoming be-fuddled! 

 

[suej]

Oh 'eck! That sounds grim Chrissie.

 I think I really will ring HMRC after the weekend then - it didn't really occur to me that the forms might not reach UK! Thanks for the wake-up call.  Think I'll call in at the Impots office here too and see what they say..

 

[Araucaria]

[quote user="suej"]

 While you were waiting for them to contact you I assume they continued to deduct UK tax?

Did they eventually refund this to you automatically or did you have to send off a claim for a refund?

If so any chance you remember which forms you had to get hold of?

[/quote]

Sue - if HMRC don't act quickly, there's a good chance that you'll get to the end of the current UK tax year without hearing anything from them - 5th April 2011. After that date, send in a UK tax return as soon as possible claiming repayment of the tax you have overpaid. Tax returns are processed fairly quickly and you'll get that year's money back, usually within a month or two.

Then by the middle of next year HMRC may well get round to processing the "France-Individual" forms you've sent in, and then you'll get back any excess tax paid after 5th April 2011. That should be done automatically, but it's always worthwhile phoning from time to time and asking what is going on.

[John Brown]

Hi,

We had a similar problem and spoke to HMRC.

The young man I spoke to said "the hold up is in France where they stockpile the forms and send them over in bulk" ( mind you, he would say that ) and ring back in a few months time.

It took about 12 months for our cheque to arrive, so it does work

John

[Patf]

Sue - as far as I know there was only one form, the one you mentioned, in french and english.

Another problem I had was they sent a money order eventually and this got lost in the post. I should have given them my UK bank details for the payment, which I did in the end.So altogether it was about 18 months [blink]

And yes, all that time they were deducting tax in the UK, but I did get it all back.

[Judith]

I did all this earlier this year.  I got the forms signed by the impots here (they did not seem to know about it when I asked, but having been forewarned on here, I got her to sign them in my presence (and also check that I had filled in the French forms correctly, which I hadn't) and I sent them back to the UK myself (my previous posts on here say all this), and I'm ever grateful for the help of SD and Will.

HMRC queried something on my hubby's form as we'd missed something off accidentally, which told us they'd got them, and not soon after (? summer - but we've moved house so it's all a big blurr) my repayment went into my UK account as requested (not the amount I epxected, but that I can sort later), and I just had a letter to say it was paid in etc, but not explanation of how they had arrived at the figure. (Still following up on that one).  Hubby had to wait quite a while and then he had a coding and letter saying yes he would received a money order (and seperately they told him how they worked it out!) and then some time later (2-3 weeks at least) suddenly a money order appeared in the post.

So it does work, but sometimes slowly. 

Certainly worth checking that it has left the impots here, if they are as confused about  the process as the fonctionaires were here.

[suej]

 

Wow, thank you all for your replies - such a help!

I'm going to start off at the local office...Like you Judith, when I handed our forms in I did insist that someone went through them with me and checked all was ok. The man I saw  seemed on the ball and seemed to know about  Form French Indiv, said it would be sent off to Paris initially...I'm not convinced they are all as good there though- we've had a couple of other things that have had to be 're-looked' after we'd suspected something had gone amiss. So I'll start there,  then ring HMRC and keep my fingers crossed something triggers some action.

I feel better knowing that others of you have had similar hiccups  and I've been given some clear advice. Thanks for sharing!

Sue

 

[bubbles]

We're still waiting to be reimbursed by British tax authorities.

Our French tax office sent us back the duly signed original of the French part of the individuel thingy.

Can't think why.

England denied all knowledge of receipt of the English version but kindly said they would accept the French one!!

We have now sent them that and await........how many months I wonder.

[Mikep]

Thanks for the correspondence, everybody. You just reminded me that I'm due a tax refund from HMRC - we've been resident in France for 14 years, but they taxed my pension from a former employer when it started in payment last year. The tax coding is all sorted now, but I'd forgotten to claim the refund - just hoped they would send it automatically. Some hope!