TERMS & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE:
We try to keep our Terms and Conditions simple, easy to understand, and avoid too much legal jargon. That way, we hope you will read them in full and have a better understanding of our relationship. By using any of our services, you are agreeing to these Terms and Conditions. If you have any queries about what these Terms and Conditions mean, please contact us directly and we will be pleased to assist further.
1. DEFINITIONS
1.1 In these Terms and Conditions “We”, “Us” and “Our” refers to National Tax Helpline, a trading name of Carrwood Ltd, with registered offices at, First Floor, 28a Middle Hillgate, Stockport, SK1 3AY.
1.2 “You” and “Your” refers to the person(s) that have submitted a claim for overpaid tax to us, using services provided via our website, nationaltaxhelpline.co.uk, that require you to enter personal information.
1.3 “Claim” refers to the overall process of you instructing us to act on your behalf to recover overpaid tax from HMRC.
1.4 “Claim Form” refers to the signed application form you have completed online.
1.5 “Services” means the services provided by us including assessing the viability of your claim and preparing and submitting the same to HMRC.
WHAT WE ASK FROM YOU
2.1 You agree to co-operate with us so that we can provide the services in accordance with our obligations.
2.2 In order to provide you with our services, you agree to give us full permission and consent required to act on your behalf as your agent with HMRC. You also agree to providing us with all relevant information that is required in accordance with your claim, this may also include us taking additional steps to enable us to obtain this information from other sources if required.
2.3 You agree to provide the information that we ask for promptly and to make sure that this information is true, accurate, correct, and complete to the best of your knowledge.
OUR OBLIGATIONS TO YOU
3.1 We will accurately process all the information you provide and take all actions necessary in connection with the provision of our services as quickly as possible.
3.2 We maintain high standards of conduct in our dealings with Governmental Departments and other institutions. We reserve the right to decline to provide our services if we believe that in doing so may breach these standards. We will notify you as soon as is practicable if we decide not to provide our service.
3.3 If you do not provide all the relevant information in our requested time frames when we agree to provide a service, we cannot be held liable for the outcome of your tax refund claim.
WHAT WE CLAIM BACK FOR YOU
4.1 All claims submitted to us are for a general overpayment of tax and not for any one specific tax rebate such as Uniform allowance, Mileage allowance or PPI Tax refund.
4.2 We will claim back any tax you have overpaid for the years you have specified on the online application form. These overpayments can occur from different considerations including, but not limited to:
4.2.1 Tax codes with incorrect or missing work expenses.
4.2.2 Tax code errors such as not being on the correct Tax Code.
4.2.3 An instance where you are mistakenly taxed, even though your income was below the tax-free personal allowance.
4.2.4 An instance where you are put on an emergency Tax Code because you are in a new job.
4.3 Our fee applies to any overpayment of tax as a result of any of the reasons stated above, but is not limited to the same.
OUR FEES
5.1 We will receive tax refund payment(s) from HMRC on your behalf and deduct our fee, before sending out a payment to you.
5.2 Our fee is 48% of the total tax refund we obtain for you from HMRC.
5.3 We charge a minimum fee of £25.00 for any successful claim approved by HMRC. If your tax refund amount does not cover this sum, we will retain the lesser amount and confirm that no additional charges or costs will apply. Your claim will then be closed.
5.4 Our charges apply to all reimbursements and payments received from HMRC.
5.5 If we receive a payment on your behalf, due to a claim you made prior to applying to us, we reserve the right to deduct our fee outlined in 5.2 and 5.3 above. However, if you can supply us with satisfactory evidence that the exact refund was in the process to be reimbursed directly to you before you submitted a claim to us, we may consider a partial refund. This is dealt with on a case-by-case basis and we have no requirement or obligation to do so.
5.6 If you request us to re-issue a cheque that we have previously sent to you, we will charge you a Fee of £19.99. Where the value of the cheque is under £19.99 you will not be required to pay us any more than the amount of the refund. We will not charge you this fee if we have made a mistake that requires your cheque to be re-issued.
5.7 Following the issue of a refund cheque, if we do not hear from you after a further 12 months and your cheque remains un-cashed, we will close your file and you agree that we will dispose of your refund as we see fit, including to a charity of our choice.
OUR OBLIGATIONS IN PROCESSING YOUR CLAIM
6.1 We will typically submit your claim to HMRC within 5 working days of receiving your fully completed & signed application form at “nationaltaxhelpline.co.uk”, however we cannot guarantee this, as in some instances this may take longer.
6.2 In relation to PPI Tax Refund claims where you no longer have a copy of your final response letter(FRL) from you bank or lender and you or we (with your written consent) have to request a copy of this FRL. The processing time before submission to HMRC can increase from the 5 working days to up to 3 weeks.
6.3 Where further information or clarification is required in relation to any aspect of your claim, we will try to contact you, however, we still reserve the right to not contact you, and alternatively:
6.3.1 Cancel your claim when we suspect it is not a legitimate tax refund claim.
6.3.2 Put your claim on hold until further information is received.
6.3.3 Remove any parts of your claim that we feel is not accurate before submitting it to HMRC.
6.4 We will not be held liable for any errors that result in HMRC issuing an incorrect refund of tax, or your claim being refused altogether due to errors you have provided on the original claim form.
6.5 We reserve the right to make any necessary amendments to your claim form before we submit it to HMRC.
6.6 Every claim received takes approximately 8 to 12 weeks to process once we have submitted it to HMRC. However, this time frame is only an estimation, and this can vary from time to time due to unforeseen circumstances, or internal delays within the HMRC.
6.7 In some circumstances, HMRC may request further information from you directly in order to process your claim. You may also receive payment direct from HMRC as a result of our submission and we will still require full payment of our fees as outlined in these terms and conditions. In the event that you receive any communication or correspondence from HMRC, you agree to notify us of such communication and forward us copies of the same. We are not responsible for any delays in processing your claim, if you do not co-operate with HMRC in a timely manner.
DISCLAIMER
7.1 National Tax Helpline is not responsible for the refund of tax or the rejection of a claim where:
7.2 The client has provided information, which is imprecise, inadequate, or false in any way.
7.2.1 The client has previously claimed and received a tax refund prior to claiming with us.
7.2.2 The client owes money to the HMRC.
7.2.3 The information you provided to us, does not match what HMRC holds on file for you.
7.3 If HMRC decides that a tax refund payment has been made incorrectly and ask for it to be paid back. We are under no obligation to refund our fee, however, when possible, and with the necessary evidence, we may consider to do so. Again, this will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
7.4 You are aware that you can submit a claim directly to HMRC yourself, without charge or fees. However, by submitting a claim with us, you are agreeing to use our services to recover any overpaid tax to you and agree to our Fees and Terms and Conditions contained herein.
YOUR ESTIMATED AND ACTUAL TAX REFUND
8.1 When you submit a claim to us and use our online tax estimation calculator, we will provide you with an estimated amount of how much you could be potentially due. This estimate is not a guarantee of the final sum and ultimately HMRC will calculate and decide the amount that you are owed.
8.2 We will not be held responsible for any occurrences in which the actual tax refund is below the estimated amount, or if your claim does not result in a refund at all.
YOUR APPLICATION AND CONSENTS/AUTHORITIES
9.1 When you complete an online application for a tax refund from “nationaltaxhelpline.co.uk” your answers and signature populate pre-printed submission forms. These forms once checked and verified are sent to HMRC. You can request a copy of the completed forms by writing to applications@nationaltaxhelpline.co.uk with your full name, NI number, date of submission, and reference number.
9.2 By signing the online application for a tax refund, you consent and agree to the following:
9.2.1 You are claiming repayment of any tax amounts overpaid by you during the specified tax years.
9.2.2 If no refund is applicable, you request HMRC to still perform a reconciliation for each specified tax year to ensure the year ahead is balanced.
9.2.3 You authorise HMRC to disclose information to us in relation to the specified tax years.
9.2.4 You agree that we will act on your behalf.
9.2.5 You confirm that the information you have provided is correct to the best of your belief.
9.2.6 You unconditionally assign any overpayment to us.
9.2.7 You agree the contract is between you and Carrwood Ltd t/a National Tax Helpline. HMRC has not seen the terms of the contract and the inclusion of these terms as part of your repayment claim should not be taken to imply that HMRC endorses or otherwise approves of these terms.
9.2.8 You request that HMRC remove any previous tax agent from your tax file.
9.2.9 You grant us authority to request a copy of your FRL letter(s) from the banks and lenders you have specified.
PAYMENTS TO CUSTOMERS
10.1 We will issue your repayment via cheque only once we have received cleared funds from HMRC. This can take up to 10 days. Cheques will be sent to the address provided on your claim form.
CANCELLING YOUR CLAIM
11.1 We have the right to cancel your claim at any stage of the process, without any obligation of providing you with a reason for doing so.
11.2 You may request cancellation of your claim after we have received your signed claim form, as long as you notify us in writing at applications@nationaltaxhelpine.co.uk within 48 hours of signing and submitting the online application.
11.3 If you wish to cancel your claim after 48 hours and provide a valid reason. We will notify HMRC of your request to cancel your claim. Please note that we cannot guarantee your claim will be cancelled once it has been submitted to HMRC and we are not under any obligation to do so.
11.4 Your claim cannot be cancelled under any circumstance once it has been accepted by HMRC, and a refund has been approved.
DATA PROTECTION AND MONEY LAUNDERING
12.1 For full details of how we process your data, please refer to our Privacy Policy located at www.nationaltaxhelpline.co.uk/privacy
12.2 Any personal data you provide to us will only be used to carry out our services.
12.3 We may contact you by using any contact details you have provided. You can ask us not to send you any information on our offers or services at any time by contacting us at info@nationaltaxhelpline.co.uk with a written request.
12.4 In order for us to comply with Money Laundering Regulations, we may be required to verify your identity before we can provide the relevant service to which this legislation applies.
12.5 In situations where we are not able to verify your identity, we may ask for additional documentation from you in order to do so. We reserve the right to withhold any payment due to you until your identity has been verified.
LIABILITY AND INDEMNITY
13.1 Under these terms and conditions any liability arising from any breach of our statutory duties or misrepresentation or otherwise, shall be limited to the total amount of Fees payable by you under the said contract.
13.2 Under no circumstances will we be held liable for any tax which is due to HMRC from you, after HMRC have carried out a reconciliation of your tax account in respect of the tax years you have applied for a tax rebate.
SEVERANCE
14.1 In the event any one or more of the Terms and Conditions contained in this contract shall for any reason be held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable in any respect, such invalidity, illegality or unenforceability shall not affect any other provisions of this Contract, but this contract shall be construed as if such invalid or illegal or unenforceable provision had never been contained herein. Upon such determination that any term or other provision is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the court making such determination is authorised and instructed to modify this contract so as to affect the original intent of the parties as closely as possible.
LAW AND JURISDICTION
The provisions of this contract and its terms and conditions shall be construed, and the performance governed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. The parties wholly agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in respect of any claims arising under this contract.
ANYTHING YOUR NOT HAPPY WITH?
We pride ourselves in providing an excellent service to our clients and we are proud of our commitment to quality and our dedication to customers. However, if you are not satisfied with any aspect of our performance, we would like to know about it. We want to put it right and prevent it from happening again.
Please email your complaint to complaints@nationaltaxhelpline.co.uk. We will address your concerns in a professional and courteous manner and hope to be able to resolve the same as soon as possible. In the unlikely event that you are still not satisfied, and you wish to take it further, please follow our Complaints Process below.
Complaints Process
Inform a member of our staff that you wish to discuss your issue with our Customer Care Team. Your contact details will be taken so that we can arrange a phone call at a mutually convenient time. Prior to contacting you, a member of the Customer Care Team will speak with the member of staff involved in the matter and collate our notes of the issues and decisions at each stage.
The Customer Care Team will clarify the nature of the complaint and listen to your views on how to address and rectify the same. We will then consider all options and resolve the complaint in a mutually convenient manner. Upon conclusion of the same, we will confirm that the issue has been resolved and the complaint closed.
If you want to make a formal complaint instead, please write to the Senior Refund Manager at:
National Tax Helpine, First Floor, 28a, Middle Hillgate, Stockport, SK1 3AY
Your written complaint will be acknowledged in writing within 5 working days of its receipt. The reply will include information about how the issues raised will be dealt with, and a written commitment to send a formal, written, response within a further 21 working days.