Who can make a claim

You can claim for a refund if you:

• have credit in your business tax account — HMRC may send you a letter to tell you about a credit
• don’t have credit in your business tax account but think you have overpaid

Work out why you overpaid

If you think you’ve made an overpayment, you must work out why you overpaid before you can claim for a refund.

To work out why you overpaid, compare what you’ve paid HMRC with what you owed in your tax account. You may have overpaid if your payments did not take into account: 

• an overpayment carried over from a previous tax year 
• statutory pay for parents that you were entitled to reclaim 
• any repayments made to employees, for example because you used the wrong tax code 
• any corrections to your reports 
• student loan deductions 
• employees who left, for example because you did not report them correctly to HMRC 
• any incentive payments from HMRC to send reports online 
• any Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions,deductions, or if you made deductions incorrectly

You also may have overpaid if you paid HMRC: 

• for the wrong tax year 
• more than once for the same bill 
• an estimated amount in advance 

For duplicated or estimated payments, tell HMRC what you paid, what you should have paid and why you paid the additional amount.

What you’ll need

To make a claim, you’ll need to give your: 

• business name, telephone number and address
• business bank account details for the repayment
• PAYE reference number 
• estimated overpayment amount 

You’ll also need to tell us: 

• the tax year you’re claiming for 
• why you overpaid 

You’ll need to provide details of amounts owed or becoming due if you want us to deduct your repayment from: 

• Corporation Tax — include your Corporation Tax unique tax reference 
• VAT — include your registration number 
• other liabilities — include type of charge and any reference numbers you have

HMRC will offset the amount against your PAYE bill in the current tax year. If you do not owe anything, they will offset the amount: 

• against a PAYE bill from a previous tax year 
• against other taxes you owe, for example Corporation Tax 

You’ll only get a refund if you do not owe HMRC any tax.

We will request further details if your claim relates to a director. This may include:

• business bank statements
• personal bank statements
• shareholder minutes

You need to submit your claim with a completed form R38 or signed authority if you want HMRC to pay an agent or other nominated representative.

Claim online 

You will only be able to claim for one tax year at a time. 

To claim online you’ll need to sign in with your Government Gateway User ID and password (if you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you first try to sign in). 

If you’re an agent, you will need to use the Government Gateway user ID you use to sign in to your agent services account. 

You can create an agent services account if you do not have one.

Claim now

Claim by post

If you’re unable to claim online you can claim by post. 

To claim by post you’ll need to gather your information and send it to HMRC in a written request marked as ‘Employers PAYE Overpayment’. 

Where to send your written claim 

After you’ve submitted a claim

HMRC will check the details you submitted and contact you to confirm if your claim has been accepted, or to ask for any further information or supporting evidence.

HMRC will offset the amount against your PAYE bill in the current tax year. If you do not owe anything, they will offset the amount: 

• against a PAYE bill from a previous tax year 
• against other taxes you owe, for example Corporation Tax 

You’ll only get a refund if you do not owe HMRC any tax.

If your claim is accepted, we’ll send you details about:

• when to expect your refund
• any changes to your refund amount
• any liability payments we make with the refund

IfFind you claimed by post or phone, find out when to expect a reply from HMRC.

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