mint Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Can anyone please throw some light on this or, at least, describe their experiences?OH has 2 annuities from 2 different providers and we informed both companies when we came to live in France last year.One company immediately started paying monthly sums gross. The other company continued to deduct tax.We have now had our first Avis D'impot and the IR has been sending the OH PAYE coding Notice which bears no resemblance to his circumstances. He was given a "code" to send to the one company (the one which is already paying gross) but nothing for the other company. The second company (which has deducted tax throughout the whole period) is not even mentioned and certainly there has come no paperwork meant to be sent to them.We would obviously like the second Company a) to stop deducting tax and b) to return the tax already deducted.The Company has told the OH he needs to get in touch with the Tax people as they can only pay gross on instruction from them.Simple? Not really, can't get any response from the folks in Nottingham despite several calls on different days and times of day.Yes, we did fill in the "Leaving the UK" form plus the one for relief at source from UK income tax in both French and English and returned the latter forms to our local tax office (as SD has said to do on these forums).So, what should our next course of action be to bring about the desired effects?If you are going through something similar, could you please post, so that at least I know this is not peculiar to us?Many thanks, indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsnips Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Hi, Take a look at "Timescale-getting tax back from the UK" on this section of the forum dated 1/9/2008.You are not alone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosub Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 deleted post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 Thank you, Parsnips. I have read the post you so kindly pointed out to me.I do think I will, after all, write to the tax office who sent OH his Coding Notice. It is in Leicester. At the very least, if I send a letter, they will have to reply and, with luck, they will have some sort of "standards" in place whereby they have to reply within x number of days.I have a feeling that, because only the one annuity company was referred to, they have totally missed out on the other one and therefore this Coding Notice is wrong and contains insufficient information.After that, and if I find that the delay is due to the French side, I will go to my local hotel des impots and pluck up courage to face Dragon Lady, yet again!Actually, although she is undoubtedly a dragon, she does seem to know what's what. Unlike her much younger, prettier and more amenable assistant whose ability I have real doubts about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 [quote user="sweet 17"]Thank you, Parsnips. I have read the post you so kindly pointed out to me.I do think I will, after all, write to the tax office who sent OH his Coding Notice. It is in Leicester. At the very least, if I send a letter, they will have to reply and, with luck, they will have some sort of "standards" in place whereby they have to reply within x number of days.I have a feeling that, because only the one annuity company was referred to, they have totally missed out on the other one and therefore this Coding Notice is wrong and contains insufficient information.After that, and if I find that the delay is due to the French side, I will go to my local hotel des impots and pluck up courage to face Dragon Lady, yet again!Actually, although she is undoubtedly a dragon, she does seem to know what's what. Unlike her much younger, prettier and more amenable assistant whose ability I have real doubts about.[/quote]A similar situation happened with Mrs Benjamin about two years ago when out of the blue she received notification from HMRC Leicester that they had instructed an annuity payer who had previously been paying gross to begin deducting tax at, if I remember rightly, an emergency rate. This involvement of the Leicester office appears to be when an annuity is in place.A call to HMRC Non-Residents Nottingham pointing out that they hold a copy of the English/French declaration (used to be referred to as an FD5) quickly sorted that out and Mrs B soon resumed receiving her annuity without deduction of tax.There is only one solution to this and that is to speak with Nottingham and if you are unfortunate to get a call handler who is unhelpful (remember these are not dyed in the wool tax inspectors as of old) then ask to speak to a supervisor.I can't understand why you are having so much trouble getting through. In the past I have got through easily and almost always received excellent service.Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 BenjaminThis is useful information indeed. Definitely no joy getting through to Nottingham but will wait a week or two and then have another go.The situation is more or less as you describe it except the notice of coding does refer to the one company that is already paying gross and nothing to the other company that is deducting the tax.As though it's not bad enough with the exchange rate without people withholding money that is rightfully yours!In any case, that money would have been worth more at the old exchange rate and, moreover, theb u g g e r s have now had our money for over a year!Imagine a private firm doing that, you'd have reported them to their regulatory authority by now, wouldn't you?[:@] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 If you Google HMRC Nottinghamyou get the following phone number to contact the Non-Residents section from abroad0044 151 210 2222( yes I know it's a Bootle code but your query will still be dealt with).If you also follow the site to find how to contact HMRC Nottingham Non-Residents by email you will be taken into their secure email facility and you can raise your query there. As with your query about FT the other day I prefer, initially at least, to actually speak to a human being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 Thanks, Benjamin, for your information and sound advice. Will do as you suggest and see what happens. If I think the results might be of help to others, I'll certainly post the outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 Benjamin, I have now emailed using the link you gave me and will see what transpires.Probably, OH will continue to ring Nottingham to try for a reply.Thank you so much for your help.[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsnips Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 [quote user="sweet 17"]Thank you, Parsnips. I have read the post you so kindly pointed out to me. .After that, and if I find that the delay is due to the French side, I will go to my local hotel des impots and pluck up courage to face Dragon Lady, yet again!Actually, although she is undoubtedly a dragon, she does seem to know what's what. Unlike her much younger, prettier and more amenable assistant whose ability I have real doubts about.[/quote] I hope you don't mean the lovely lady with the grey pony-tail! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 10, 2008 Author Share Posted September 10, 2008 Parsnips, you don't mean that's a pony tail? Funny, I thought dragons have kinda spiked tails! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 10, 2008 Author Share Posted September 10, 2008 BenjaminCouldn't fault their automated reply: email back same day (yesterday) saying we will get an answer within 5 days.Will wait to see if the answer is worth waiting for, if you see what I mean!Cynical, moi? No, just a bit world-weary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gastines Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 When I e-mailed I got a very quick automated reply,then another saing 4 weeks to deal with your query, to add insult to injury ,"If you don't hear after 4 weeks contact us again". In the end on phoning a lady gave us the same response but as I then said "Sorry not good enough" she said she would look into it and phone back. Amazingly enough she did and I had my money approx 12 weeks later.No interest added by HMRC.Regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 10, 2008 Author Share Posted September 10, 2008 Gastines, I knew there was a catch somewhere but, having read your post, I know I'll just have to keep plugging away until I get the results I want.Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.