HMRC CONTACT DETAILS

[Desley Revell]

Hoping someone in this group may be able to assist me.

I receive a small UK pension from each month and after my husband died last year it took an eternity to get things changed.

I have always paid tax in Australia and the income I receive from the UK is always declared here in Australia. For some reason last year income tax was deducted at source and then in August 2024, I received a letter from HMRC stating that I had paid too much tax and that the HMRC owes me a refund.

I was advised to apply for the refund via the HRMC APP. Everything was going well until I had to prove my identity by supplying my UK passport or UK drivers license both of which I do not have being an Australian citizen.

My question to the group is, does anybody know the postal address for the HMRC as I cannot ring here from Australia as I do not have this facility on my phone. I have looked online and there is no way I can find an actual address where I can send a letter. Unfortunately, they will not communicate by email.

All I want is to be able to give them my details where the refund can be sent in the letter. I wrote a letter on 6th August to an address I thought I found online but to date, I have not receive a reply. It is now nearly October!!

Any assistance people could provide would be gratefully appreciated.
Thank you, Desley.




Sent from my iPhone

[Paul Swain]

Desley Revell wrote on 26/09/2024 6:59 pm:

My question to the group is, does anybody know the postal address for the HMRC as I cannot ring here from Australia as I do not have this facility on my phone. I have looked online and there is no way I can find an actual address where I can send a letter. Unfortunately, they will not communicate by email.

Hi Desley!

There is a postal address for self assessment queries (which is what I guess this is) at the bottom of https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/self-assessment

That page also says that you can ask general questions via "Twitter". So you could send them a question that way asking them how long they are taking to respond to letters. Given the state of UK public services, and the time it takes for a letter to arrive from the UK (about 4 weeks in my recent experience), I'd expect a reply by letter to take much more than 7 weeks. If you don't have a "Twitter" account, email me at bapac...@yahoo.com and I'll ask for you.

I'm also surprised that there wasn't an address on the letter that you got. That would be the first place that I would look.

Anyone else got any ideas?

Thanks

Paul

[Michael Goodall]

Hi Desley,

As am Australian citizen you should be paying your tax in Australia. There is a dual taxation agreement between the Uk and Australia which means that you only should pay tax once on any income. Therefore you should complete the enclosed document and send to your Australian Tax office who will confirm that you are an Australian Tax payer and send information direct to HMRC to inform them that you should not be paying tax in the UK.

The next stage is to recover the tax you have paid in the UK, not just the overpaid tax. HMRC's standard procedure is to send a Sterling cheque. However, this year Australian banks have started to not accept UK cheques and for those who don't have a UK bank account a Sterling Cheque becomes impossible to process.

As a last resort HMRC will actually pay into an Australian Bank in Australian dollars. Therefore if that is your only option you should contact HMRC to advise them of the bank details that you wish the payment to be made to.

HMRC can be written to at:-

His Majesty's Revenue and Customs,

BX9 1AN

United Kingdom.

Or telephoned on 00 11 44 191 203 7010 They open at 3.00 pm WA time and 5 pm AEST.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

Mike Goodall

Tel:-     +61 8 6364 0859

Mob:- +61 403 909 865

---

From: bapa...@googlegroups.com <bapa...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Desley Revell <desley...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, 26 September 2024 4:59 PM
To: bapa...@googlegroups.com <bapa...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [bapanews] HMRC CONTACT DETAILS

 

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[Tony Hussey]

The only information I have been able to find is as below - which hopefully may be of help

HMRC Digital Services
Complaints Unit
S1755
Newcastle
NE98 1ZZ
United Kingdom

 

HMRC,  BX9 1AS UK

Tel: +44 (0) 300 200 3300

I myself am in a similar predicament: having been informed that I am owed a refund -I find that none of the procedures for claiming it actually work! I'm still working on it !

Good luck !

Tony

[Desley Revell]

Hello Mike

Thank you for your response to my query.

To answer a couple of points.

My late husband and I have never paid income tax in the UK since living in Australia and it is only since my husband died last year that it has suddenly changed.  

I don’t know why as the income tax paperwork should have stayed the same.  We have always only paid tax in Australia being an Australian citizen.

Appreciate you sending that Dual Taxation form.  I will get this completed and forward to the ATO and then onto the HMRC.  Hopefully this will alleviate any further problems.

I will have to insist with the HMRC to actually pay the refund into my Australian bank. I do not have any UK bank accounts. From my point of view it would seem such an easier way to do it to just to transfer the refund through to my Australian bank but these big institutions always think otherwise.

Thank you again.  

Desley Revell

Sent from my iPhone

On 27 Sep 2024, at 10:13, Michael Goodall <mikecg...@btconnect.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bapanews/AM0PR07MB47877F0E8F110E2B85F3798AD66A2%40AM0PR07MB4787.eurprd07.prod.outlook.com.

<HMRC Double Taxation form Individuals.pdf>

[vivienne bentley walker]

Hello 👋 

Really think you would get better results by calling them, I know you said you can't call from your phone but do you have a family member or friend who's phone you could use. Our mobile contracts include calls to the UK. Just a thought and good luck 😊

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bapanews/97627EB9-678D-4D9D-BE76-6E2EC91925BF%40gmail.com.

[phi...@yahoo.com]

Use Skype call. $10 of credit goes a long way calling overseas.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bapanews/CAAk-5v1MNf1KT32S%3D2JYuT9PhcV5RJEvAnVZbGekHWEtktGARQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[valerie...@bigpond.com]

Hi Desley

 

Just to tell you I was in the same position as you when my husband died in 2022.    You have a long journey ahead to get this sorted and the UK Tax Office are very  slow and my tax request to pay tax to the Australian Tax Office (to which my husband paid taxes on all his UK pensions since we moved to Australia in 2008) was only completed earlier this year!   It was a nightmare dealing with UK taxes and pensions and I had to send so many emails and make numerous phone calls.   The UK Tax Office insisted that the only way to receive the refund due would be in cheque form and of course the Australian banks do not now accept cheques from other countries!    It was lucky that I have a nephew living in the UK who I nominated for the refund cheques to be sent to him to transfer into my bank account.       I  was also in touch with the Australian Tax Office who just said they could not help it was all down to the UK Tax Office to deal with.

 

Hopefully for you things will have improved since my experience! 

 

Trust this information has been useful for you.

 

Valerie Young

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bapanews/97627EB9-678D-4D9D-BE76-6E2EC91925BF%40gmail.com.

[Frank Smith]

Hi all

Inflation has resulted in the tax free allowance on incomes in the UK becoming less. So those of us receiving a substantial UK pension have now become liable to tax at source which the UK government has started to collect  without telling us.

If your pension payment starts to fall, check if that has happened to you and respond as the first writer of this thread did

Regards

Frank

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bapanews/004f01db113c%24cba66030%2462f32090%24%40bigpond.com.

[Desley Revell]

I apologise for not keeping members updated with regards to getting a tax refund owing to myself from HMRC.

I will detail, in full, what steps I have taken once it has been finalised.  Let me say it is not easy and I keep hitting brick walls, exactly as Valerie predicted.

I spoke to the ATO yesterday (waited on the phone for 2 hours) only to be advised that the HMRC form (Dual Taxation Agreement)  requesting the ATO to sign and stamp has been rejected by the ATO.  This information was only given to me by phone and I’m still waiting for confirmation in the post.

The ATO advised that they are sending out another form from their office (not the HMRC UK) and the Australian Taxation Office will send a sealed copy to the UK HMRC with a copy to myself.

Once I get it finalised (and I am hopeful and determined), I will detail it in simple terms for members so that if someone else has the same problem down the track, they will have a record of what to do.