At last! Rogue website pays refunds
. . . but not because we misled anyone, say bosses of the copycat tax site that charges up to £1,000 to file your form
A CONTROVERSIAL copycat of a Government website, which charges up to £1,000 for filing a self-assessment tax return, has begun to refund fees to clients who complained they were tricked into using its service.
In recent days The Mail on Sunday has been contacted by readers who have just received letters from Who4, the Sunderland-based firm behind the Taxreturngateway website, confirming they will receive a refund as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.
The undated pro forma correspondence states that the repayment follows a ‘review’ made by the company, but that Who4 does not ‘accept any of the comments’ made by complainants.
It has also refunded taxpayers who used its service in the run-up to the January 31 deadline for submitting self-assessment forms, but were hit with a £100 late payment penalty from Revenue & Customs because Who4 missed the date. Who4 has refunded their fees and penalty charges.
News of these refunds should bring hope to thousands of taxpayers who used the website believing it to be the official Revenue site and paid the fees in the mistaken belief that they were paying all or part of their tax bill.
They were duped into thinking it was the official site because it sported the same colours and key words, such as gateway, as the Revenue site.
Taxreturngateway also sucked in taxpayers by appearing at the top of internet searches when people tried to find the official site, as it paid Google and other search engines to advertise it ahead of the Revenue site.
Taxreturngateway’s refunds come as the Government finally begins to clamp down on websites that palm themselves off as Government sites.
Consumer Minister Jenny Willott last week promised extra funding for Trading Standards officers so they can ‘tackle these rogue traders’, adding that ‘misleading websites which dupe people into believing they are using the official channel need to be stopped in their tracks’. The Government’s belated intervention follows a three-month campaign by The Mail on Sunday to expose the harm caused by these rogue websites – and to get them closed.
Hundreds of readers contacted us during the campaign, infuriated by the fact that they had been fooled into paying unnecessary fees. Most wrath was reserved for Taxreturngateway.
Other copycat websites exist that charge extra fees for driving licence renewals and passport applications and some charge to buy a free European Health Insurance Card for you.
Who4 is a big operator of copycat sites. As well as the tax site, its directors, Michael Hughes, Stephen Oliver and James Wyatt,
also run passport.uk.com, drivinglicence.uk.com and europeanhealth. org.uk – either through Who4 or a firm called Caveat Viator.
Though no accounts have been filed to date for either firm, the sites have reaped the trio rich rewards. In recent weeks, an anonymous source has contacted The Mail on Sunday with the information that they have bought several cars for cash, including a yellow Lamborghini Aventador, and a DBS and Vanquish from the Stratstone Aston Martin dealership in Houghton-leSpring, Tyne & Wear.
Chartered civil engineer Michael Grounsell, accountancy secretary Lynne Gibb and primary school teacher Jenny Marshall are among those to have been promised a full refund in the past few days following Who4’s ‘review’.
Michael, from Winchester, and Lynne, from Guildford, Surrey, will get back £400 and Jenny, from Ascot, Berkshire, £500. All had complained to Who4 after realising their payments were not in lieu of tax but towards its processing fees.
Michael in fact owed only £37.50 in tax. He says: ‘In looking to file online, I Googled “HMRC”, which led me to Taxreturngateway. I submitted my details and was told my estimated tax bill was £437.50 and that £400 had to be paid straight away. It was only after I paid and got an email from the firm that the penny dropped – I had been duped.’
Determined to get back his money, and acting on information supplied by The Mail on Sunday, he asked Who4 to justify its £400 charge. It failed to respond until last week, when Michael received the ‘review’ letter sent to other complainants.
‘I must thank The Mail on Sunday for its support and the information it provided, but it has hasn’t changed my mind – Taxreturngateway is a ruse, plain and simple.’
Hannah West, an art therapist from York, has also just received a £500 refund. She used the website thinking it was official and paid her money over believing it to be in lieu of tax. She soon realised her mistake, emailing Who4 within hours saying she no longer wanted its services. It said it would not refund her because its services were ‘applied immediately’ and that she should have read its conditions.
Undeterred, she sent recorded letters to Who4 stating it had breached its contract because it had not supplied any service and threatening to make a small claim at a County Court.
Hannah, 47, who is busy setting up an arts centre in York with partner Christian Topman, a 42-year-old musician, says: ‘Taxreturngateway should be closed down. Who4? Well, not for customers.’
Christine Dodd, a 66-year-old Avon lady from Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, had a £300 refund. She challenged it about its charge immediately and then submitted her own return after Who4 failed to do it within the promised time.
Only after threatening legal action did it refund her.
‘It doesn’t provide a service,’ says Christine. ‘It got key details wrong in my return. Also, given it has all my personal and bank details, I’ve had no choice but to get a new debit card and open a new bank account.’
To those who have paid a fee but have yet to complain because they feel ashamed, she says: ‘Fight back, argue, write to Who4 and threaten them with court action.’
Natalie Davey, a 23-year-old lighting technician from Southampton, has just received a £500 refund plus £100 to compensate her for a late payment charge. Unlike other recipients of refunds, she received an apology from Who4.
Last week, Who4 said Taxreturngateway was not a copycat website but a ‘bespoke tax return checking service’. Requests for refunds, it said, were looked at ‘individually’.