People urged to claim almost £500 from HMRC after ‘one million people missed out last year’

They failed to respond to their letter last year

From the first week of June, households will begin receiving letters from HM Revenue and Customs, while urgent action is required in some cases.

Approximately 4 million income tax refund letters are being dispatched by the tax authority between June 1 and August 31.

Meanwhile, recipients are being warned they “must respond” if they're asked for more details, or else could miss out.

Shockingly, nearly one million people are missing out on an average of £473 simply because they failed to respond to their letter last year.

Officials warned: “Remember getting a letter about a tax refund but didn't do anything about it? Last year, almost 1 million people didn't claim back the money they're owed.”

Typically, the refunds arise when people overpay income tax, typically due to an incorrect tax code, a change of employment, or holding multiple jobs simultaneously.

The quickest method is for you to claim online via your Personal Tax Account or the HMRC app, while payments are usually processed within 5 working days.

As it has warned about fake letters also circulating on this issue, the HMRC has warned that “you may get a letter from HMRC asking you to contact us about your repayment claim. We may ask you to send more information to verify your claim.”

“You must respond to the letter so we can make any repayments owed to you as soon as possible. If you receive further requests for information to be sent to an email address that does not end in ‘hmrc.gov.uk’, they will not be genuine and you should report this to HMRC.”

For various reasons, millions of taxpayers overpay tax each year, which means they are owed a rebate from HMRC to return their hard-earned money.

The tax authority dispatches letters annually to these individuals, outlining how to submit a claim.

Recipients had 21 days to respond until 2024, otherwise a cheque was posted to their registered address. Hundreds of thousands of these remain uncashed, however.