Claiming back tax off previous years MM claims
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: As far away from work as possible
Posts: 87
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Claiming back tax off previous years MM claims
Has anyone claimed back tax from all of their motor mileage claims pre-JPA days? Apparently it is possible with a printout from SAMA. If anybody has any gen I'd be grateful.
I recently left the RAF after a long "career" as aircrew and before I left I used my resettlement money and annual educashun money to qualify as a bookkeeper. I am now self employed and one of the things I do is personal tax. Thats my credentials out of the way.
Yes indeed you can claim back the excess. The way it works is that if you travel on duty and get a mileage allowance from your employer for using your own car, that is below the chancellor's allowable 40p per mile you can claim back tax on the difference. Duty does not include home to duty (or whatever it is called in the 21st century), or money paid under get you home schemes. You can claim for up to 10,000 miles per year.
For instance if you do 1000 miles and get paid 25p per mile, you will get £250. The chancellor would allow you to have £400 (40p per mile). You therefore put the difference (£150) in box 2.5 on your short tax return and you will get £150 extra tax free for that year. Note that you dont get the £150 back, but the tax on £150, so how much you get will depend on whether your top rate of tax is 22p or 40p in the pound. It may not sound much but anything that saves you money is a good thing.
I dont think you would need SAMA printouts (although if you have them all well and good), but you will need to keep good records. I would advise a copy of the claim and the related payment slip as the minimum. For JPA, a printed copy of the claim and the payment advise will suffice. Forgive me if I have got the JPA thing wrong, but I left just before it came in.
Hope this is useful.
Shadwell
Yes indeed you can claim back the excess. The way it works is that if you travel on duty and get a mileage allowance from your employer for using your own car, that is below the chancellor's allowable 40p per mile you can claim back tax on the difference. Duty does not include home to duty (or whatever it is called in the 21st century), or money paid under get you home schemes. You can claim for up to 10,000 miles per year.
For instance if you do 1000 miles and get paid 25p per mile, you will get £250. The chancellor would allow you to have £400 (40p per mile). You therefore put the difference (£150) in box 2.5 on your short tax return and you will get £150 extra tax free for that year. Note that you dont get the £150 back, but the tax on £150, so how much you get will depend on whether your top rate of tax is 22p or 40p in the pound. It may not sound much but anything that saves you money is a good thing.
I dont think you would need SAMA printouts (although if you have them all well and good), but you will need to keep good records. I would advise a copy of the claim and the related payment slip as the minimum. For JPA, a printed copy of the claim and the payment advise will suffice. Forgive me if I have got the JPA thing wrong, but I left just before it came in.
Hope this is useful.
Shadwell
DD
You can indeed claim back tax on MM. Be careful though as not all military "duty" travel qualifies ie IIRC you cannot claim for a 1771 "duty" journey to attend a medical appointment, again IIRC, only for journeys where you had to travel as part of your day job ie to attend a meeting at another unit etc. IR do a good booklet on what is and isn't eligible an a quick call to your tax office will see one dispatched to you (unfortunately I cannot remember the IR number though it may be on the IR website).
You can back date the claims for previous years but I think there is a limit to how many years. You might need some form of proof for the atxman that you did the journeys, and although the old SAMA print out was not acceptable as proof it was a very useful document for totalling the mileage you had done and what rate you were paid.
Interestingly every year I have filled in the full and short tax return the IR have ended up owing me money.
This year I haven't received a tax return of any sort - should I be worried? Shadwell, over to you!
You can indeed claim back tax on MM. Be careful though as not all military "duty" travel qualifies ie IIRC you cannot claim for a 1771 "duty" journey to attend a medical appointment, again IIRC, only for journeys where you had to travel as part of your day job ie to attend a meeting at another unit etc. IR do a good booklet on what is and isn't eligible an a quick call to your tax office will see one dispatched to you (unfortunately I cannot remember the IR number though it may be on the IR website).
You can back date the claims for previous years but I think there is a limit to how many years. You might need some form of proof for the atxman that you did the journeys, and although the old SAMA print out was not acceptable as proof it was a very useful document for totalling the mileage you had done and what rate you were paid.
Interestingly every year I have filled in the full and short tax return the IR have ended up owing me money.
This year I haven't received a tax return of any sort - should I be worried? Shadwell, over to you!
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
What STO did not mention was that you can claim back up to about 5 or 6 years.
Also you do not have to claim only the SAMA paid rate.
For instance the regulations state that you could have used trunk roads as that is government policy and not the AA shortest route basis. Had you undertaken a journey that involved the M1/M25/M3 or M4, handbrake house may have paid you the direct route. Say that was 125 miles but the motorway route was 150 then you could claim the 40-ptr for 125 miles and 25 miles at the full 40p/m.
You can also claim for non-htd journeys for which you had no SAMA claim. For instance Mrs Dog may have driven you to the rail station which was within your htd radius and handbrake house did not pay a claim. Then that is claimable at 40p per mile for 4 journeys as your car made the return trip each time.
Did you know that handbrake house would pay these return trips if you claimed?
Did you ever do a course where you got mileage for the outbound trip in week 1 and homeward in week 2? Well you can claim the tax relief on the return journeys in between.
I was challenged once by the compliance unit who alleged that I was recompensed by the MOD. The rules had just changed and they were not up to speed. I pointed out the regulations and that I was simply claiming the difference. I did not have to send any paperwork nor did I have to detail the journeys.
Also you do not have to claim only the SAMA paid rate.
For instance the regulations state that you could have used trunk roads as that is government policy and not the AA shortest route basis. Had you undertaken a journey that involved the M1/M25/M3 or M4, handbrake house may have paid you the direct route. Say that was 125 miles but the motorway route was 150 then you could claim the 40-ptr for 125 miles and 25 miles at the full 40p/m.
You can also claim for non-htd journeys for which you had no SAMA claim. For instance Mrs Dog may have driven you to the rail station which was within your htd radius and handbrake house did not pay a claim. Then that is claimable at 40p per mile for 4 journeys as your car made the return trip each time.
Did you know that handbrake house would pay these return trips if you claimed?
Did you ever do a course where you got mileage for the outbound trip in week 1 and homeward in week 2? Well you can claim the tax relief on the return journeys in between.
I was challenged once by the compliance unit who alleged that I was recompensed by the MOD. The rules had just changed and they were not up to speed. I pointed out the regulations and that I was simply claiming the difference. I did not have to send any paperwork nor did I have to detail the journeys.
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Gloucestershire
Posts: 403
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I can confirm what you've got here PN. Last year I claimed back 6 years, albeit since I'm long out of uniform, for civvy journeys. But mil or civ, it's the same tax rules.
Claimable rates depend on cc of course. So a 2.0l car is allowed to claim 40p per mile for 10,000 miles and then 25p after that. You calculate the difference between what you were paid by the Services and that which is permitted under tax rules and claim the difference. You'll get back the proportion of the difference that is your max (marginal) tax rate - 22 or 40%.
A point worth noting is that if you set off from home and didn't go near the station (or base!) in any meaningful way, you can claim the HTD mileage too, as it doesn't in that case count as HTD. Don't take the p on this one though. If you drive past the gate, you can't claim; if you go a route not within a few miles, or which is in a different direction altogether, that's fine. I checked this with the IR helpline (who are in fact surprisingly helpful - to the point they phoned me back to correct something they got wrong!).
Correct too about being driven by someone else to/from the likes of a rail head.
I keep track of miles done by category for every journey, by date and from/to, so if challenged by the IR I have the evidence to the granularity they want.
I got several £100s back. Go for it
Claimable rates depend on cc of course. So a 2.0l car is allowed to claim 40p per mile for 10,000 miles and then 25p after that. You calculate the difference between what you were paid by the Services and that which is permitted under tax rules and claim the difference. You'll get back the proportion of the difference that is your max (marginal) tax rate - 22 or 40%.
A point worth noting is that if you set off from home and didn't go near the station (or base!) in any meaningful way, you can claim the HTD mileage too, as it doesn't in that case count as HTD. Don't take the p on this one though. If you drive past the gate, you can't claim; if you go a route not within a few miles, or which is in a different direction altogether, that's fine. I checked this with the IR helpline (who are in fact surprisingly helpful - to the point they phoned me back to correct something they got wrong!).
Correct too about being driven by someone else to/from the likes of a rail head.
I keep track of miles done by category for every journey, by date and from/to, so if challenged by the IR I have the evidence to the granularity they want.
I got several £100s back. Go for it
My reply was not meant to cover all circumstances - for which I apologise. I do not disagree with any of the posts above and yes you can claim back up to 6 years.
The only issue I would have with some of the advice given above is that you have to be able to provide proof that you did a particular journey. The problem with trying to claim for a trip by "she who must be obeyed" taxis inc to the station on a duty journey is providing the evidence. The copy of a claim and related payment slip is really the minimum. If some of you have claimed and either not had it challenged or won a challenge that is fine. Unfortuneately, some of this is down to the individual who is making the challenge.
You may be interested to know that HMRC is now a combination of a number of departments (VAT, Income tax). Whereas the Income tax people used to be fairly gentle and easy to deal with, some of the other departments were more like an unleashed Rotweiller. In the new combined organisation it seems that the latter predominate. If you do have any dealings with the new organisation you will probably find them more difficult to deal with and convince, and more by the book (ie jobsworth). There is no doubt that the treasury have given them instructions to collect more taxes and you seem to be less likely to get a ruling to go your way unless you have a cast iron case backed up by a paper trail.
Which brings me to RolandPulfrew's question. There have been a number of cases (and at least one of which I have direct experience), where the taxman has not sent out tax forms to those expecting them, or has said there is no need to fill one in as your circumstances are straightforward. This usually means that if you fill one in you will be entitled to a refund (ie you are paying too much tax). This is another ploy to get more tax from people. My advice would be that if you are a higher rate tax payer you should fill in a tax form. Look at your tax code. Everybody is entitled to £5035 tax free income in this 2006/7 tax year, so your code should be at least 503. If it is lower than 503, you are not getting your allowance, which could mean that they assume you are a 40% tax payer with additional income to your pay (ie savings, bank etc). How would they know how much - and in advance when setting your tax code. Do you think the tax man is going to allow you to get away with paying any tax? I think not.
Shadwell
The only issue I would have with some of the advice given above is that you have to be able to provide proof that you did a particular journey. The problem with trying to claim for a trip by "she who must be obeyed" taxis inc to the station on a duty journey is providing the evidence. The copy of a claim and related payment slip is really the minimum. If some of you have claimed and either not had it challenged or won a challenge that is fine. Unfortuneately, some of this is down to the individual who is making the challenge.
You may be interested to know that HMRC is now a combination of a number of departments (VAT, Income tax). Whereas the Income tax people used to be fairly gentle and easy to deal with, some of the other departments were more like an unleashed Rotweiller. In the new combined organisation it seems that the latter predominate. If you do have any dealings with the new organisation you will probably find them more difficult to deal with and convince, and more by the book (ie jobsworth). There is no doubt that the treasury have given them instructions to collect more taxes and you seem to be less likely to get a ruling to go your way unless you have a cast iron case backed up by a paper trail.
Which brings me to RolandPulfrew's question. There have been a number of cases (and at least one of which I have direct experience), where the taxman has not sent out tax forms to those expecting them, or has said there is no need to fill one in as your circumstances are straightforward. This usually means that if you fill one in you will be entitled to a refund (ie you are paying too much tax). This is another ploy to get more tax from people. My advice would be that if you are a higher rate tax payer you should fill in a tax form. Look at your tax code. Everybody is entitled to £5035 tax free income in this 2006/7 tax year, so your code should be at least 503. If it is lower than 503, you are not getting your allowance, which could mean that they assume you are a 40% tax payer with additional income to your pay (ie savings, bank etc). How would they know how much - and in advance when setting your tax code. Do you think the tax man is going to allow you to get away with paying any tax? I think not.
Shadwell
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
you have a cast iron case backed up by a paper trail.
