Apply for Your Refund Now!

If you worked in the UK at any time during the 2005/2006 tax year, you should apply for your refund as soon as possible. The UK tax office has recently shorted the reclaim period from 6 to 4 years. The new time period will begin in April 2012, allowing a short grace period for claims from 2005/2006. Continue Reading

With the paper filing deadline recently passed, and the online filing deadline of 31 January looming, here are 4 good reasons to ensure you file on time this year. Continue Reading

HMRC has announced that those who submit their 2010/2011 tax return late will face higher penalties than in previous years.

According to HMRC, the previous £100 penalty was not enough of a deterrent and new measures have been put in place to ensure timeous returns. A spokesperson said: “HMRC spends a lot of time pursuing late returns and getting involved in unnecessary appeals work. We want to focus our resources on more productive work such as catching criminals and collecting tax.” Continue Reading

We have heard from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) this week that it is preparing to send out tax rebates totalling £2.5 billion between now and the end of next year, as it clears its backlog of pay as you earn (PAYE) open cases for the tax years 2003 to 2008.

You may be very surprised to learn that there are many more tax rebates also sitting at HMRC waiting to be claimed. Continue Reading

The European Commission has recently given the green light to the UK government’s measures aimed at increasing tax relief for people who invest in fast growing small firms. The measures, first announced in the annual budget speech in Spring, will now come into effect, as part of the Government’s plans to create employment.

Changes include:

• Lifting income-tax relief from 20% to 30% for investors who provide equity finance to smaller firms.
• The amount on which an investor can get tax relief will also be doubled to £1 million.
• An investor who buys shares in a firm that qualifies for the scheme will now be able to set 30% of the cost of the investment against their income-tax bill.
• Holding onto the shares for three years will mean that any gain on the investment is free from Capital Gains Tax.
• The higher threshold will take effect from April 2012 and tax relief will be backdated to April 2011.

George Osborne has said that the UK Government wants to make the UK “the best place to start, finance and grow a business,” He added: “these changes will give a bigger tax break to those who take risks for growth and jobs in Britain.”

The treasury has estimated that while these smaller high-growth firms account for only 6% of businesses employing 10 people or more, they have in fact provided more than half the new jobs created in the last three years.

Take our Refund Potential Quiz to see if there is a nice sum of money waiting to be claimed by you!

Answer the following questions – yes or no.

1. Have you worked in the UK in the past 5 years?
2. Have you paid Emergency Tax in the UK in the last 5 years?
3. Have you left the UK before the end of a tax year (6 April to 5 May)?
4. While working in the UK, did you have more than 1 Employer in a tax year?
5. Have you at any point only worked for part of a tax year?
6. Have you been on an incorrect tax code at any point in the last 5 years?
7. Have you at any time had two or more jobs in the UK concurrently?

If you answered yes to 2 or more of the above questions, there’s a good chance you are due a refund!

Call a 1^st Contact Tax Refund Consultant on 0808 141 5503 and make sure you have the following in order:

• Exact information of the companies you have worked for in the previous 5 tax years.
• P60s and P45s from these jobs. (If you don’t have these forms from your previous employers, a 1^st Contact Tax Refund consultant can help by applying for them on your behalf. Alternatively get a Statement of Earnings from the HR Department of the companies you worked for.)
• Your National Insurance Number. (If you don’t have one, you will have to apply for and receive your NI number before you can claim back your overpaid tax, but not to worry – a 1st Contact Consultant can help you with that too.)

We’ll fill out all the necessary documentation over the phone, submit your claim to HMCR and then keep you up to date with your claim process.

Remember that even with our efficient service and direct line to HMCR, it can take a few weeks before you receive your money. So why wait? Apply now and you could have an early Christmas!

Call 0808 141 5503 to speak to a qualified Tax Refund Consultant or visit http://www.1stcontact-taxrefunds.com/ for more information.

IR35 legislation is once again in the spotlight after another tribunal hearing has ruled against HMRC in favour of the independent contractor, finding him to be “legitimate”. Continue Reading

Around half a million taxpayers did not receive their Self Assessment Tax Forms in time to submit and pay by the 31st of July this year.  HMRC on their website said that “no one needs to worry about this” and apologised for the delay, presumably caused because the Revenue ran out of paper. Continue Reading

The LVCR (Low Value Consignment Relief) tax avoidance loophole will finally be closed this year, putting an end to the multi-million pound Channel Islands industry and an unfathomably long run of exploitation by large online mail order companies, including Play.com, Amazon and HMV. Continue Reading

You’ll need one to claim your tax back.

It’s the end of the tax season and now is a good time to apply to claim back any tax you may have overpaid in the last tax year, as well as the past 4 years, if you haven’t claimed previously. Continue Reading

Tax Penalties are enforced by HMRC for various reasons and are more often than not the direct result of either procrastination or a lack of information.  Ensure you don’t cut into your annual take-home pay by having to fork our hundreds of Pounds for penalties which could have been avoided in the first place. Continue Reading

Many people don’t bother to apply for a tax refund because they either believe they are not due anything, or they feel the hassle far outweighs what they might get back.  But the truth is with just a phone call to 1st Contact Tax Refunds, and a little time and energy to get the right documentation together, you could receive back an average of £850 – possibly even more if you haven’t claimed at all in the past 5 years. Continue Reading

Do you have a pressing question you think our experts may be able to help with?

Submit your questions here and it may be featured in the next issue of 1st Contact eNews.

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HMRC has issued new rules for the correct tax coding for termination payments, to come into effect from 6 April 2011. Under the current rules, if a termination of employment payment is made to an employee after the P45 form has been issued to the employee and the payment in question is more than £30 000, any amount over £30 000 will be taxed. The taxation amount is 20% and the code “BR” (for basic rate). The employer is required to withhold 20% of the amount over £30 000, and the former employee is responsible for any further tax that may be payable. Continue Reading

With the end of the financial year looming, fraudsters, phishers and con artists are once again hard at work trying to take your money! Continue Reading

With the end of the financial tax year just a few weeks away, 1^st contact would like to urge you to check if you are due a UK tax refund. The 1^st Contact Tax Refunds team is geared up and ready to deal with the numerous claim requests that start pouring in at this time of the year. Continue Reading

Claimers beware! There’s yet another Inland Revenue scam floating around the internet. The site claims to be the Inland Revenue in order to obtain people’s details.  Rather get in touch with 1st Contact Tax Refunds instead.

Continue Reading

A few months ago, 1st Contact launched a Facebook competition, and now Vicky Tomlinson has won her refund of £198 in cash! Continue Reading

If you’re an independent contractor in the UK – whether seasoned or new to the game – you might find the thought of self promotion or marketing a little daunting. It needn’t be! Here are 5 fairly simple ways to promote yourself and your business. Each requires a fair amount of input on your part, but the payoff in each instance far outweighs the work. You may even have mastered a few of these steps already. Continue Reading

National Freelancers Day will be a day when PCG members and the wider freelance community take time out to reflect on the growth of the freelance sector across the UK and its contribution to the economic well-being of the nation. Continue Reading