What is a UK tax year and when can I claim a UK Tax Rebate
Welcome to , I'm going to show you when you can claim your UK tax rebate,
how you can claim the rebate and what you can claim. After reading this you'll have a clear understanding of:
- What a tax year is and why it's important
- What tax year you should claim a tax rebate for
- When you can claim your tax rebate, and
- How many previous years you can claim for
Ok, so let’s get started:
You claim your tax rebate by tax year. A tax year is not the same as a normal year.
A tax year starts on the 6th of April and ends on the 5th of April the following year.
We then take the start year and the end year, combine them and you have your tax year.
Why is this important?
Because when you claim your tax rebate you claim it by tax year.
The next question you're probably asking is what tax year to complete a rebate claim for?
The easiest way to work this out is to think of a time you were unemployed.
For example, if you were unemployed from say the 1st of May 2007 to the 10th of June 2007
chances are good you overpaid tax in the 2007/2008 tax year. Why?
Because you were unemployed between the 6th of April 2007 and the 5th of April 2008, in other words, the 2007/2008 tax year.
Why would you have overpaid tax if you were unemployed?
Because tax gets calculated with the assumption that you're going to be employed for the total duration of a tax year.
And the more you earn the more tax you pay. So if then, for any reason, you do NOT work the complete tax year you probably paid too much tax.
Other reasons for overpaying tax can include:
- Emergency Tax Code or
- Incorrect Tax Code
For example, you might have been issued with an emergency tax code, (BR),
or an incorrect tax code. You'll be surprised how often this happens.
But how would you know if you're due a tax rebate?
Easy, simply register with ,
enter your employment information and let take care of the rest.
Its free so you have absolutely nothing to lose.
Next we're going to look at when you can claim your tax rebate
You can claim your tax rebate for any tax year after the tax year ended.
So to take our example from earlier. If you feel you overpaid tax in the 2007/2008 tax year, you’ll be able to claim a tax rebate at the end of the 2007/2008 tax year.
In this case after the 5th of April 2008.
Leaving the UK
There is an exception to this rule. You can claim a tax rebate for the current tax year if you're leaving the UK (or you've already left the UK)
and you're not planning to return to work in the UK before the end of the tax year.
So if you're leaving the UK, or you already left, you can claim a tax rebate for any tax year if you've already
left your last job in the UK.
How far back can you claim your UK Tax Rebate?
What if you overpaid tax a long time ago but you never claimed it back? Simply register with ,
click the 'create a new tax return' button,
and then select a tax year.
If the year you want to claim your rebate for is in the dropdown list then you can claim a tax rebate for that year.
So why wait, register now for free at and claim your UK tax rebate today!