Did anyone ever use one of those “HGV tax refund” companies to help you claim tax on work purchases, mileage and night out money? Well, I’ve had a letter from HMRC “Haulage Intervention Team” and the short story is, they want the tax back again.
Turns out these claims firms were totally unregulated and were giving out incorrect and shady advice. I resisted the urge to claim for mileage and nights out where the big bucks were, and stuck only to purchases (Microwave, Fridge, Sat Nav etc) but HMRC are requesting £1,200 or so back. Part of the sum includes a 50% reduction in recognition of the fact I was misled and have been charged a fee for a shoddy (possibly fraudulent) service. HMRC have put the claims company out of business and my accountant friend thinks that they have agreed to turn over all client records in exchange for a reduction in the fine they will receive.
I’m not complaining about this situation, if I owe it , I owe it. But I just wanted to warn everyone of potential trouble ahead, and for some drivers who claimed much more than me it could run into thousands.
And no, it’s not a scam. I have called HMRC back directly to verify using a contact number taken from their own website.
Never claimed anything back apart from the Uniform Tax Relief. I bet there are a few bums twitching at the moment.
My mate who works in construction would always keep the reciepts when we were on a football away day. Fuel reciepts to the match and even the reciepts for the pre match meal in the pub. He used to claim it as business expenses.
There is some serious ■■■■ taking in paying what you owe, from the man on the tools right up to the billionares.
Not experienced it myself purely because it was a man approching me in a service station who offered me this claims service and my thinking is that behind every scheme is a schemer. I passed up the opportunity reasoning that it would likely bite me in the arse at a later date.
Are we talking about those shysters from somewhere near Burnley?
I applied and filled in their forms about 6 or 7 years ago, they posted me them back to sign and when I looked they’d added claims for Satnavs, Microwaves, fridges, ovens and a load of other ■■■■■■ I rung them and told them to sod off, I also rung HMRC in Newcastle and the told me they had already submitted a claim and informed them I was now self assessment.
It was all cancelled their and then with HMRC,
I’ve mates that I worked with who claimed and have already had their tax code lowered if they couldn’t pay thousands back straight away.
Sorry but you’ve got what you deserved for being greedy!
Did anyone ever use one of those “HGV tax refund” companies to help you claim tax on work purchases, mileage and night out money? Well, I’ve had a letter from HMRC “Haulage Intervention Team” and the short story is, they want the tax back again.
Turns out these claims firms were totally unregulated and were giving out incorrect and shady advice. I resisted the urge to claim for mileage and nights out where the big bucks were, and stuck only to purchases (Microwave, Fridge, Sat Nav etc) but HMRC are requesting £1,200 or so back. Part of the sum includes a 50% reduction in recognition of the fact I was misled and have been charged a fee for a shoddy (possibly fraudulent) service. HMRC have put the claims company out of business and my accountant friend thinks that they have agreed to turn over all client records in exchange for a reduction in the fine they will receive.
I’m not complaining about this situation, if I owe it , I owe it. But I just wanted to warn everyone of potential trouble ahead, and for some drivers who claimed much more than me it could run into thousands.
And no, it’s not a scam. I have called HMRC back directly to verify using a contact number taken from their own website.
Anyone else experienced this yet?
Can you upload the letter with your personal info blacked out?
Whilst HMRC are not helping much by getting private citizens to “open a tax account” which then won’t accept a driving license as ID, but instead demands a VALID passport or VALID credit card number - which many people don’t actually have!!
I tried opening an account, and when I put my passport in, it said "It has expired. Please enter a credit card (not a debit card) number instead - when I don’t have one! Birth Certificates are acceptable, but why oh why won’t an institution like HMRC accept DRIVING LICENCES as valid ID■■? They are all registered at government department DVLA for cross-verification, have our photos on them, and of course our name and addresses - which must be accurate by law.
There are too many chumps still working in the Civil Services, it seems…
Winseer:
Whilst HMRC are not helping much by getting private citizens to “open a tax account” which then won’t accept a driving license as ID, but instead demands a VALID passport or VALID credit card number - which many people don’t actually have!!
I tried opening an account, and when I put my passport in, it said "It has expired. Please enter a credit card (not a debit card) number instead - when I don’t have one! Birth Certificates are acceptable, but why oh why won’t an institution like HMRC accept DRIVING LICENCES as valid ID■■? They are all registered at government department DVLA for cross-verification, have our photos on them, and of course our name and addresses - which must be accurate by law.
There are too many chumps still working in the Civil Services, it seems…
They do. My DL worked just fine. As usual, like your failings in being able to drive a truck without endless drama, you can’t use the internet without a load of drama either.
Winseer:
Whilst HMRC are not helping much by getting private citizens to “open a tax account” which then won’t accept a driving license as ID, but instead demands a VALID passport or VALID credit card number - which many people don’t actually have!!
I tried opening an account, and when I put my passport in, it said "It has expired. Please enter a credit card (not a debit card) number instead - when I don’t have one! Birth Certificates are acceptable, but why oh why won’t an institution like HMRC accept DRIVING LICENCES as valid ID■■? They are all registered at government department DVLA for cross-verification, have our photos on them, and of course our name and addresses - which must be accurate by law.
There are too many chumps still working in the Civil Services, it seems…
They do. My DL worked just fine. As usual, like your failings in being able to drive a truck without endless drama, you can’t use the internet without a load of drama either.
I reckon sometime in the next year or so we’ll be seeing similar posts from the “self employed drivers” who weren’t as HMRC start to trawl through everything they’ve been warning people about in order to try to recoup tax owed to help cover the cost of the covid crisis.
Grumpy_old_trucker:
Are we talking about those shysters from somewhere near Burnley?
I applied and filled in their forms about 6 or 7 years ago, they posted me them back to sign and when I looked they’d added claims for Satnavs, Microwaves, fridges, ovens and a load of other [zb], I rung them and told them to sod off, I also rung HMRC in Newcastle and the told me they had already submitted a claim and informed them I was now self assessment.
It was all cancelled their and then with HMRC,
I’ve mates that I worked with who claimed and have already had their tax code lowered if they couldn’t pay thousands back straight away.
Sorry but you’ve got what you deserved for being greedy!
Um, no… I quite reasonably believed that I bought things for work use, I could claim tax back on them. You know, like self employed people do. The were urging me to claim for a lot more than that and I told them to stick to real items. So GFY.
It’s not possible, as you no doubt know as you come across as the type that’s tried on many occasions, but because of your greed you no longer have to try, as per the letter they made an offer for you to cancel your claim but your greed stopped you from doing so therefore HMRC are doing it to you.
Got what you deserve!
toonsy:
You mean something that sounds too good to be true turned out to be too good to be true?
How is claiming for work related expenses “too good to be true”? Self employed people do it.
A trucking satnav can be argued as a work related expense as can a road atlas with bridge heights and weight limites but a microwave, a fridge,TV or whatever else isn’t as those are wholly for personal use, not for business. The fact you’re using them in a truck doesn’t alter that, their use is nothing to do with the business. A self employed driver wouldn’t legitimately be able to claim those either as a business expense.
Basically the question you need to ask is “do you need that item to do your job and it cannot be done without it?” For most things you buy “for work” that’ll answer whether or not it’s claimable. Not having a fridge or a microwave doesn’t prevent you from doing the job. A satnav can reasonably be argued it does because you can’t do a delivery if you can’t find where you’re going.
Conor:
A trucking satnav can be argued as a work related expense as can a road atlas with bridge heights and weight limites but a microwave, a fridge,TV or whatever else isn’t as those are wholly for personal use, not for business. The fact you’re using them in a truck doesn’t alter that, their use is nothing to do with the business. A self employed driver wouldn’t legitimately be able to claim those either as a business expense.
Basically the question you need to ask is “do you need that item to do your job and it cannot be done without it?” For most things you buy “for work” that’ll answer whether or not it’s claimable. Not having a fridge or a microwave doesn’t prevent you from doing the job. A satnav can reasonably be argued it does because you can’t do a delivery if you can’t find where you’re going.
Ha, yes I realise that now but at the time I didn’t, I’m jot a Chartered Accountant.
I think everyone has missed the point here, I came here to warn, not for sympathy or advice. I’ve already arranged to repay the tax and am not unhappy about it in the slightest, since I clearly owe it.
I’ve been waiting on a tax refund for the past 3 months from a company in cheshire. They’re not advertising themselves as a HGV tax refund company but a moblie workers claim company that take a percentage of whatever your refund is. Due to the pandemic they’re taking forever to push it all through as they keep telling me they’re waiting on HMRC to issue my UTR number so they can proceed with my claim, Ive claimed for sat nav, food, travel etc dating back a couple of years so lets see what happens.
A few of ours did it including myself , and got a fair amount back ……… then the tax office came hunting and the lads got royally bent over 1 lad had to pay over 4 grand back , think I got about 1200 and when they caught up with me I had to pay 400 back .
1 lad had to pay over 4 grand back , think I got about 1200 and when they caught up with me I had to pay 400 back .