-------- Beginnig of the letter -------------

<Date>
<Your full name>
<Your address>
<Your National Insurance Number (NIN)>

Dear Sirs,
I am writing to request a repayment of an overpayment of Income Tax for the tax year <tax year you are claiming the refund (e.g.: 2009/10>. As noted in the enclosed forms, I left the UK on <date you left the UK> and think I have overpaid Income Tax. According to my calculations, I have paid £ <amount in pounds according to your calculations> in excess.
Please find enclosed a copy of my P45 along with the P85 which should provide a complete work history for your records.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me on <e-mail address> or <phone number>.

Yours sincerely,
<Your full name>
<Your signature>

-------- End of the letter -------------

Some things to consider:

• Make a copy of all the information you will send to the Tax Office in the UK.
• Remember that the letter should be addressed to your appropriate Tax Office, not a random one. If you send the letter to the wrong office, they will reject it. They will not forward the letter to your appropriate tax office.
• Send the letter by certified post to have proof that the letter has been received.
• While not mandatory, it is recommended to include your own calculated refund amount in the letter.

You can find further information about the entire process of making the UK Income Tax refund claim in the following entry: Tax Refund when you leave the UK: PAYE, P45, P85.

In a previous post I had explained the steps to follow in order to prepare a successful tax refund claim, specifically for Income Tax or PAYE (Pay As You Earn), once you stop working in the United Kingdom: Tax Refund when you leave the UK: PAYE, P45, P85.

Well, I must say that my claim was successful and the money was already paid into my British bank account and last week I received a letter from the HM Revenue & Customs with the tax refund calculation details, along with a practical guide called "Understanding your Tax Calculation". The refund amount I had previously calculated was correct and the money was paid into my bank account with no problems, within a reasonable period of time. The whole process took me about a month, so the main purpose of this post is to encourage claiming the tax refund to all those who have given up, thinking that it will be a long and bureaucratic process, and probably will not get what they want.

Below is a chronological summary of the steps I took to get my money back:

• September 14th: I sent all the required documentation (P45 Parts 2 and 3, P85) to the tax office in the UK by certified post along with a handwritten letter indicating my own calculation.
• September 21st: The letter arrived to the appropriate Tax Office in the UK.
• October 16th: The claimed amount was deposited into my British bank account whose details I had provided in the form P85.
• October 29th: I received a letter by post from the appropriate UK Tax Office stating that my claim was accepted and the money will be paid into my UK bank account provided in the form P85. The letter had been sent on October 8. You can see the first page of this notification on the picture included in this post.

As you can see, the entire process since I sent the letter until I received the formal answer from the UK Tax Office, took about 45 days. 30 out of those 45 days were notifications travel time. The overall time elapsed from the day the UK Tax Office received my letter (September 21^st) until they sent me the formal notification (8^th October) was only 18 days.

As a final comment, if you don’t own a bank account in the United Kingdom, they can send you a check along with the formal notification (you also can provide a friend’s bank account in the form 85). The UK Tax Office doesn’t make payments into foreign bank accounts.