Those of you who are operating within the construction industry know just how difficult it is to get your CIS refund each year, how badly it affects your cashflow and how annoying it is when HMRC start chasing you for your corporation tax when you are still waiting on them to process the refund.

We used to send in the P35 by 19th May and receive a refund in October, if we were lucky and had sent at least 3 letters!! If there was a discrepancy between what was submitted on the P35 and the figures that HMRC had then you would be looking at January at the earliest for a repayment.

With the introduction of RTI there was some excitement and rumours that perhaps there would now be monthly repayments. After all, we now submit up to date information every month but the excitement was very quickly doused when we found out that the refund wouldn’t be considered until the final submission of the tax year was made.

However, HMRC have stated that they are aiming to improve the service and let’s face it, that wouldn’t be too difficult! They are aiming to make repayments within 25 days of the letter being sent. Yes, you still have to request the refund of your money in writing, don’t forget that bit.

They are also saying that they can make repayments by BACS this year for the first time, as long as they have all the information.

Here is the link to the repayment helpcard as issued by HMRC so you can make sure you get your refund as quickly as possible.

Basically, as long as the figures agree and you have written to them with the correct information you will have your refund paid directly to your bank account in just 5 weeks.

To be honest, having battled for CIS refunds for years now, I’m really hoping that I don’t have to face those battles this year. However, I am a little sceptical and can only say that I’ll believe it when I see it. What about you?

Vikki