[YouMeAndThree]

I rang the Tax Credit helpline yesterday to inform them that my OH stopped work in July and will be leaving the country tomorrow. They said they'd make a note of the change regarding work - but the big shocker was that I was informed:

"You will have to repay all the tax credits you've received this financial year when you leave the UK".
Surely this can't be right???? Please someone tell me that, as usual, they've got it wrong. To fork out £700 now would just about break me :wah

[dharder]

"You will have to repay all the tax credits you've received this financial year when you leave the UK".
Surely this can't be right???? Please someone tell me that, as usual, they've got it wrong. To fork out £700 now would just about break me :wah

I don't think that is right 'in principle', just because you leave the country your are not entitled to anything in the months you have worked here.

But because they calculate your entitlements based on the projected income and outgoings (childcare etc) for the whole year, you might be entitled to less if you only have income and outgoing for a couple of months, if that makes any sense. I think they asked us for 16 pounds back.

Call them again, ask the same question, and I assure you you will get a different answer. And then call them a third time, and you'll get a third answer...

Good luck trying to sort this out. I've found them rather hopeless, to be honest. :(

Daniela

[victoria24]

if in doubt try http://www.taxcc.org/

[Familyofmonkeys]

I'm sure this isn't correct. In fact they kept paying us tax credits after we had left the UK, because without a permanent overseas forwarding address (they wouldn't take a relatives address in UK) their 'system' doesn't have the functionality to stop payments. Had similar issues with child benefit, but tax credits were still being payed to us for 4 months after we left UK......they haven't asked for any of it back....yet :roll

[babscat]

My daughter and family have been in NZ, with PR, for a full year. They have been threatened with court action because, in spite of following all the correct procedures, they finished up with a huge overpayment (LONG STORY!) They are now officially in dispute with the Tax Credit Office over repaying the money.

In spite of all this, a form has arrived at their address IN NEW ZEALAND for them to apply for tax credits for the current year. It is now 14 months since they informed the Tax Credit Office that they were emigrating. JUST HOW INEFFECIENT CAN THEY GET ??!!!

[dharder]

JUST HOW INEFFECIENT CAN THEY GET ??!!!

I had a full audit done on me once by them because someone thought I wasn't eligible (6 years after first applying and receiving the credits!) because I didn't have UK citizenship at the time (but EU one).

But it took me months to find out that that was the reason they 'spot checked' me in the first place.

They made me feel like a criminal, and they ended up going over ever item on my bank statements for three years. They checked the ones that weren't clear! Like 'this 32 pounds in August 2004, what was that for?'. Occasionally, I got the impression the woman got a kick out of this.

I have to say, though, that even though they are an incapable bunch dealing with this, and surely costing lots of extra money becasue they are so ridiculously inefficient, I have always been grateful for getting the tax credits. It has certainly helped us as a family lots, and it was a much more significant (as in what it meant in real terms) help than the tax credits we get here.

Daniela

[nippa&pippa]

Look like everyone got same problem with Tax credit...

[James 1077]

I have always been grateful for getting the tax credits.

That is the point of tax credits - you feel grateful you are getting something off the government to help out.

It is only when you realise it was your money to begin with and how much easier it would have been not to have given it to the government in the first place that you start getting annoyed! :)

[dharder]

That is the point of tax credits - you feel grateful you are getting something off the government to help out.

It is only when you realise it was your money to begin with and how much easier it would have been not to have given it to the government in the first place that you start getting annoyed! :)

I think we see this differently, as I don't consider taxes my money to begin with. They are my contribution to the whole, and I am grateful for a system that recognises the fact that my needs may be different at different stages in my life, therefore allowing for some slack (i.e. tax credits) when I, for example, am looking after small children or need daycare for them.

I agree that there are easier ways to achieve similar results, i.e. a subsidised childcare place for an Under 2 year old would have made more sense to me than giving me tax credits to help pay the very high cost.

But on the whole, no, I don't consider, in principle, taxes to be something that 'The Government' unjustifiably rips out of my wallet.

That they are often not spent in the way that I would like them to is par for the course, I'm afraid. But that's what we have a vote for, to chose the inefficient ways in which we want the taxes to be spent :)

Daniela

[pinkpiggy]

I agree Daniela. Nobody likes paying taxes but at the end of the day they are our way of caring for everybody at whatever stage in their life they are at. Yes, some people need more help than others, yes some people take advantage but if you never have to claim a benefit or use public health services then in my opinion you should consider yourself lucky.

I have only had to claim benefit for a very small part of my adult life and I'm proud of that fact - it means I've been healthy and able to earn a reasonable wage.

[James 1077]

I've got nothing against paying taxes (only what they are spent on!). Governments need to be able to get money and unfortunately only a lucky few are able to pump / dig that money out of the ground!

My point about tax credits though is that if you pay a tax to the government and then get some of that money back once it has been churned through government bureaucracy then that money "belonged" to you anyway and it would have been easier to simply not have paid it to the government in the first place.

Furthermore the tax credit system requires an additional level of bureaucracy in order to gather everybody's details; work out their income, number of children, how long they are employed for, last year's income etc. This means that payment of tax credits is fraught with error and has huge potential for fraud.

Tax breaks however can be given through the employer running them through their accounting and payroll systems and the employer already has all or most of these details already. Furthermore fraud is far more unlikely to happen and more likely to be discovered as companies have systems in place to prevent them and are easier to check by the Inland Revenue.

The reason that tax credits operate they way they do though is that people feel better getting money from the government than they do simply not paying it to them in the first place - this means that tax credits become a vote winner while tax breaks for people who have children and earn under $X aren't to the same sort of extent.

[Familyofmonkeys]

I've got nothing against paying taxes (only what they are spent on!). Governments need to be able to get money and unfortunately only a lucky few are able to pump / dig that money out of the ground!

My point about tax credits though is that if you pay a tax to the government and then get some of that money back once it has been churned through government bureaucracy then that money "belonged" to you anyway and it would have been easier to simply not have paid it to the government in the first place.

Furthermore the tax credit system requires an additional level of bureaucracy in order to gather everybody's details; work out their income, number of children, how long they are employed for, last year's income etc. This means that payment of tax credits is fraught with error and has huge potential for fraud.

Tax breaks however can be given through the employer running them through their accounting and payroll systems and the employer already has all or most of these details already. Furthermore fraud is far more unlikely to happen and more likely to be discovered as companies have systems in place to prevent them and are easier to check by the Inland Revenue.

The reason that tax credits operate they way they do though is that people feel better getting money from the government than they do simply not paying it to them in the first place - this means that tax credits become a vote winner while tax breaks for people who have children and earn under $X aren't to the same sort of extent.

But then you have difficulties working out the houserhold income.....spouses/partners don't usually work for the same employer.
Thing that annoys me the most is there is no consideration for the fact that two people with the same combined joint income of one wage earner are better off, yet get treated the same. People like my family are penalised.....I couldn't afford to work even if I wanted to as we'd never cover childcare costs.

[thewoodies]

OMG - we have that all to sort out! what do you do if you have no home or job in NZ and dont know where your going? Is it best to leave money in a uk bank for the payments and sort it out once you know wha you are doing? and then if necessary pay it back?

:wah I hate this sort of stuff!!!!!!