Repayment delays

Could Taxation mount a concerted effort or campaign to pressurise HMRC into issuing repayments more quickly?

I remember the days when the fact that an individual would receive his or her repayment quickly was a much-vaunted advantage of filing one’s self-assessment tax return online. Not any more: some of my R40 cases beat online filing hands down.

I have filed all my self-assessment tax returns online for a number of years and yet recently I have noticed a significant increase between the time they’re accepted by HMRC and the time any repayment is eventually made.

On telephoning the dedicated agent help line I’m always told the reason for the delay is likely to be either (a) security checks or (b) somehow page TR5 has not been actioned properly.

One case I had was where HMRC deliberately withheld an income tax repayment in September 2010 for offset against a capital...