A reminder of the deadline for taxpayers not in self assessment
There has been plenty of publicity about the 31 January 2012 deadline for filing 2010/11 self assessment tax returns and paying the tax. But there is another 31 January 2012 deadline which may be easily overlooked: it is the last date for taxpayers not within SA to make repayment claims for 2005/06.
The time limits for claims changed in April 2010. The familiar “five years and 10 months after the tax year-end” limit which applied to many claims was changed to four years after the year-end. For SA taxpayers this applies to all claims submitted after 31 March 2010, regardless of the period the claim relates to.
However – there is an exception for individuals who are not in SA, for whom the new four-year time limit applies from 1 April 2012 not 2010. The two-year delay was introduced because these people are less likely to be aware of the change in time limits and are being allowed more time to claim for prior years. The 2012 deadline applies for any year for which the person was not required to make an SA return.
This means that over the next few months there is a succession of deadlines for non-SA taxpayers to make claims, and then the four-year time limit will apply to them as it does to non-SA taxpayers.
Most importantly, 31 January 2012 is the last day for making any claims for repayment of tax for 2005/06.
Repayments might be due where, for example, the taxpayer had not claimed allowances to which they are entitled (eg age allowance or blind person’s allowance) or where savings income has had 20% tax deducted and the individual is not a taxpayer or is liable at the 10% savings rate.
After that, 31 March 2012 is the deadline for 2006/07 claims and 5 April 2012 is the deadline for 2007/08 claims.
Exceptionally, a concession allows repayments to be made for earlier years in cases of official error by HMRC or another government department.