Study finds self-assessment taxpayers in UK overpaid £8.9bn in income tax

Self-assessment taxpayers successful the UK are estimated to person overpaid £8.9bn ($12.18bn) successful income taxation past year, according to probe by accountancy signifier UHY Hacker Young.

The institution said that a large origin is the Payment connected Account system, which requires galore self-assessment taxpayers to marque beforehand payments based connected the erstwhile year’s taxation bill.

If their income falls, these instalments tin transcend the taxation really due, resulting successful important overpayments.

HMRC information provided to UHY Hacker Young suggests that astir 2.6 cardinal radical paid excessively overmuch taxation done self-assessment.

The institution noted that galore whitethorn beryllium unaware they are owed a refund.

HMRC does not automatically close self-assessment overpayments.

Taxpayers indispensable spot the contented themselves and actively use for a repayment.

UHY Hacker Young added that basal mistakes erstwhile completing returns are different predominant origin of overpayment.

Errors tin see entering an incorrect wage fig oregon failing to assertion each morganatic concern expenses specified arsenic question oregon supplies, which tin permission individuals paying taxation connected income that does not correspond existent profit.

The institution urged taxpayers to instrumentality peculiar attraction erstwhile filling successful self-assessment forms and to question nonrecreational proposal if they are uncertain astir immoderate portion of the process.

It besides warned that HMRC backlogs mean repayments of overpaid taxation tin beryllium delayed, with immoderate taxpayers reportedly waiting betwixt 18 and 24 months to person their money.

Neela Chauhan, spouse astatine UHY Hacker Young, said: "Self-assessment taxpayers indispensable cheque whether they person paid the close amount. Refunds are not automatic and HMRC volition not proactively archer you that you person paid excessively much.

“If you don’t cheque your instrumentality cautiously and travel up, you whitethorn ne'er spot that wealth again. There are adjacent cases wherever taxpayers person identified overpayments and HMRC are unnecessarily withholding money, which is causing radical a batch of undue stress. Any overpaid taxation is fundamentally a low-interest indebtedness to HMRC truthful should beryllium chased up arsenic rapidly arsenic possible.”

UHY Hacker Young is an accountancy web with 96 partners and 720 unit crossed 20 UK offices, offering accounting, taxation and concern advisory services.

"Study finds self-assessment taxpayers successful UK overpaid £8.9bn successful income tax" was primitively created and published by The Accountant, a GlobalData owned brand.

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