Claiming VCT Income Tax Relief before end of tax year?

[onslow]

Morning all,

Rather than waiting until submitting my self assessment after the end of the current tax year, it appears that HMRC can adjust your current tax code or pay you the relief sooner

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/venture-cap ... -investors "How to Claim Relief" towards the end of the page.

Has anybody done this? Would be great if I could just call HMRC, state I've invested £XX in VCTs this year and want to claim the 30%. Presumably any adjustments to the tax I owe will be part of my Self Assessment which I'll file as per usual after the tax year has ended - and it'll of course include a credit for any VCT relief that HMRC has already paid.

Anybody done this? Or do most just wait until filing your self assessment? If you have done this, what does HMRC require? Share certificates?

Thank you

[scotia]

My wife simply sends a copy of the income tax relief certificate as supplied by the VCT to HMRC and asks for an amendment to her tax code. After about a month the tax code change occurs. At the end of the financial year, she checks what she has paid, and caries out a final adjustment by carrying out an on-line entry (the adjustment is necessary because HMRC usually over estimates the amount of interest she receives )
I have a more variable income, part of it being self-employed, so I tend to wait until the end of a financial year and tidy it up with an on-line entry.

[onslow]

Thanks Scotia.

My tax code has already changed due to pension contributions, ideally I'd like to get he 30% relief back now - all in one hit rather it coming in every month via a tax code. Curious if anybody has done this.

[cprof]

I have not tried this but I think the only way that they can give tax relief is via PAYE coding and of course the nature of the PAYE process is that the code spreads tax and hence tax relief evenly across the year, although half way through the tax year you will get approx 50% of the relief.
In the past when I submitted my first tax certificates in the year I told HMRC of my anticipated future VCT purchases via DRIS, to try to persuade them to give me relief for that in addition to my year to date purchases.... they never have given relief on anticipated VCT purchases and have told me last time that they will not give relief until they get the tax certificates!
I find that sometimes HMRC get it wrong when you have multiple tax codes for different income sources, so i tell them what my anticipated income is from the different PAYE income streams and I have in the past calculated and suggested what the tax codes should be. Last year at first attempt HMRC calculations were completely wrong. These calculations are particularly complex if your marginal rates of tax are greater than 20%.

[cprof]

I am going to correct myself as i have re read the HMRC guidance which says that you can either ask for your code to be adjusted or for a tax refund. So i assume that if you have already paid tax equivalent to the relief you are entitled to you should send in your certificates requesting a rebate rather than a code adjustment and get it all at once, I don't think HMRC will rebate tax you have not paid yet!

I cannot recall anyone on these forums reporting they have claimed during the year a rebate rather than a PAYE adjustment, the obvious attraction is that the calculation is much simpler.

[marcop]

Yes, I did this a few years ago and I got a cheque. However, last two years I asked for a cheque and they ignored this and adjusted my tax code.