Refund ruse comes out in the wash
S.W. writes: I drew funds from my pension plan and was advised that I would be taxed at the higher rate but would receive a refund at the end of the financial year. Separately, I was contacted by a company called KLG Limited about claiming tax relief for the cost of cleaning my work uniform, and I signed to let them claim just this. I was told by Revenue & Customs I was due a refund of more than £432 tax overpaid on my pension, and a week later I received another letter advising I was due just over £69 for cleaning my uniform. In all, £502 was sent by the Revenue to KLG Limited, which then charged £143 in fees, despite having secured only £69 for me. The company has failed to respond to my letters and calls. SOMETIMES it is not déjà vu at all, it really is history repeating itself. So it is today.
Last December, I reported how a reader also paid too much income tax on money drawn from his pension plan. He knew that he stood to get back around £700 at the end of the financial year.
Meanwhile, he was contacted by KLG Limited – which also uses the name Uniform Tax Credits – and was told the company could help him get a tax refund because his job required him to wear a uniform and to clean it at his own expense.
He received more than £700 in pension tax refunds, plus £ 63 because he laundered his own work uniform – and KLG deducted £220 in costs.
Like you, last December’s reader would have been better off if he had never heard of KLG, never claimed tax relief for laundry costs, and simply pocketed the pension tax refund that was already in the pipeline. Michael Byfield, boss of Swansea-based KLG, told me at the time that he aimed to offer a ‘costeffective service’. As a gesture of goodwill, he said, he would refund the £220.
With this in mind, I asked Byfield to reconsider the fees he charged you. He told me: ‘ We issued a cheque to refund the fees ages ago, but my bank manager is away so I cannot get confirmation that it has not cleared.’
A week later Byfield contacted me to say he was repaying your £143. He added that he had replied to your earlier complaints and had sent you a cheque at the time, but as it had not been cashed, he could only assume it had not reached you.
Now it is déjà vu all over again. For last February, I told how a supermarket cleaner allowed KLG to claim a tax refund on his behalf. The tax office said it sent the refund to KLG, but the young cleaner insisted nothing had been passed on to him.
Michael Byfield assured me two cheques had been issued, but for some unexplained reason, neither had arrived. He then sent a fresh c heque which was del i vered safely.
Nobody needs to use KLG to claim back tax. The firm advertises: ‘If you wear a uniform or company T-shirt, polo shirt, etc, at work and wash it yourself then you may be able to claim an allowance against your taxable income.’
But what it does not add is that tax offices do not want to have to consider millions of claims for the cost of hot water and washing powder, so for decades the Revenue has offered a s et amount of expenses linked to the type of work people do.
Claiming for yourself is simple, with no receipts needed and no paperwork.
The scheme covers anyone who has to buy or clean a work uniform or protective clothing, or provide their own work tools. Once you have claimed, the tax relief should be carried forward each year automatically – with no fees to pay.