More than 1.5 million pensioners are currently overpaying tax on income received, warn accountants and business advisors Beever and Struthers. Recent research suggests that up to £9 billion worth of tax may be being overpaid each year by taxpayers as a whole.
The firm is alerting OAPs to the danger of overpaying because many believe that income paid into bank accounts is untaxed when in most cases it has been taxed before they receive it.
If pensioners have been paying tax on their pension or savings income (other than dividends) over the past six years, they may be due a repayment of that tax.
But OAPs are urged to act now because after April 2010 the number of years for which some of them can claim repayments drops from five to four.
There are transitional arrangements in place which will allow many pensioners to claim six years repayments until 2012, however, to be certain of this, action should be taken now.
Claire Kennedy, tax partner at Beever and Struthers, said: “The tax system is obviously very complex and HM Revenue and Customs can be difficult to deal with.
“Tax repayment claim forms can be hard to understand but they’re worth completing because if you have been paying tax for the past six years you may be entitled to a repayment worth hundreds of pounds.
“A professional advisor can prepare and submit the claims form to HM Revenue and Customs to not only take the stress and complexity out of the process but also to advise if it’s worthwhile and if so, to ensure that pensioners receive repayments of income tax year after year.”
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For further information please contact: Justin Strong, associate director at Manchester PR agency SKV Communications on 0161 838 7770 or e-mail justin.strong@skvcommunications.co.uk
Notes to editors:
Beever and Struthers is a UK Top 50 accountancy and business advisory firm with offices in Manchester, Blackburn and London following its recent merger with Blackburn accountancy firm Waterworths.
The merged firm has 26 partners and over 150 staff providing a full service offering in areas including accountancy, audit, tax, corporate finance, fraud, grants consultancy, financial services and business assurance.
It specialises in sectors such as social housing (is currently a Top 4 provider of audit and assurance services in the UK to housing associations), charity, not for profit and sport. It was the second fastest growing Top 60 firm for the second year running in 2008 and has been tipped as “one to watch” by Accountancy magazine for 2009.
