Just received a letter from HMRC about clients o/p - states

Point 1

"Cli requested an immediate payment from her local Inland Rev Enquiry Centre in Sept 04...This started regular pymts being paid by cheque even though cli was receiving her regular entitlement into her bank account"

Therefore overpayment is recoverable...


Now I do not know much at all about this area of o/p's.. but to the lay person - surely it is their error (too?) if they were paying the client twice... one by cheque and one into bank a/c..?

So could this be argued as official error....?

Point 2

2nd o/p from 2007.. Letter states cli did not return the annual declaration. This should have been returned 31 July.

On 10 August - HMRC wrote and told her award ended. Please note - I have not discussed this with cli yet...

O/p = £1464...

Question is twofold:

a) if she did return it - do we just argue on you say this we say that basis...

b) if she didnt - but we can prove income for that period - can they relook at the case due to underlying entitlement..?

Hopefully, these are simpleton questions to ask you trusted members..

Thanks for reading.

Point 1

Although it seems reasonably arguable that paying a client twice could constitue Offical Error, to dispute an overpayment on these grounds the client would still need to show that it was reasonable for him/her to think her award was correct or that repaying the OP will cause hardship.

As I assume he/she was aware they were being paid twice, unless they raised this with HMRC at the time and were told that the double payments were correct, I think it would be difficult to win the case.

If this was the case then the normal complaints procedure should be followed starting with completing a TC 846.

Point 2

If the clients claim was terminated less than 30 days ago, he/she has the opportunity to contact HMRC and provide the income details requested on the annual declaration. The original claim can then be reinstated - rescheduling ongoing payments and in effect overiding the OP which is currently outstanding from the current years provisional payments. This of course does not prevent OP in earlier year if income has risen/circumstances have changed.

Having worked for HMRC Tax Credits for 3 years before my current role, I am yet to see a case where arguing a client sent in an annual declaration but HMRC did not recv it, being successful against just OP recovery. You could however use this as argument for 'Good Cause' to get the claim reinstated if it is outside of the 30 days.

Good Luck

Thanks for that - most useful.. x

There are two sets of circumstances in which, according to COP26, HMRC will not seek recovery of an overpayment. These are:

- where recovery would cause the claimants hardship, and

- in cases where the overpayment has resulted from a mistake made by HMRC or another department, and the claimant could reasonably have thought that their award was right.