Many armed forces personnel are eligible for tax rebates. However, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will only release this money if you submit a claim. As a result, it’s not uncommon for Ministry of Defence (MOD) employees to lose money that they’re entitled to, and not even know about it.

What is a Military Tax Rebate?

These are tax refunds that serving and former military personnel can claim for eligible travel and expenses. You can claim tax refunds whether you’ve used your own vehicle or public transport.

What Can I Make a Claim for?

You can claim tax rebates for travel expenses that are incurred while travelling from home to a temporary worksite. A temporary worksite is a base that you’re posted to for a duration of 24 months or less. If you end up staying at a base for more than two years, but your posting was originally meant to last less than 24 months, you can still claim tax refunds for the initial 2-year period. 

What happens if you have received MMA, GYH, and HTD allowances? You can still make a claim. This is because the allowance that you’ve received is less than the amount you should get. With HMRC, you can claim up to 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles covered in a tax year. With any additional miles, you’re entitled to 25p per mile. 

You can also claim a tax rebate on food and meal expenses. In fact, this claim has the potential to considerably increase your tax refund amount. As is the case with travel expenses, you can only make this claim if you were posted to a temporary workplace.

Military personnel who have been posted overseas can claim a significant amount as long as they have used their own vehicle or public transport to travel between home and the overseas base.

If you travel between your home and the temporary base daily or on weekends, you’ll be able to claim a tax refund for this expensel.

If you have served at several bases within the year, you can get a refund for all those bases.

To sum up, you can get a tax rebate for travel and expenses as long as;

  • You’ve been posted to serve at a base for a period of 24 months or less.
  • You’ve travelled between your home and your temporary workplace using your car or public transport.
  • The travel and expenses you’re claiming for were incurred during the past four years.

How do I Make a Claim?

If you have the time and the skills, you can claim your military tax rebate yourself. You also have the option to make use of a tax rebate service. With a tax rebate service, you’ll only need to provide them with the required information and they’ll handle every aspect of your claim. 

How Long Does it Take to Make a Military Tax Refund Claim?

HMRC will typically process a military tax rebate claim within 6 - 8 weeks. If you’re using a tax rebate service, they may also need  a few weeks to put your claim together.

What Information do I need to Provide?

To make a tax rebate claim, you’ll need the following information;

  1. A list of the bases that you’ve served at.
  2. Your monthly payslips.These indicate whether or not you’ve been given allowances to cover your travel. If you don’t have all your payslips you can easily obtain copies from the JPAC website.
  3. Your assignment orders. If you don’t have your assignment orders, you can obtain them from the JPA system. Keep in mind that they’re deleted after 60 days.

It would also be helpful if you could provide the following;

  • Proof of address. A good example is a utility bill.
  • P60s and P45s - if available.
  • MOT Certificates.
  • Receipts for Mess Dress.
  • HMRC will also want to know about any other cash you’ve got coming in.

Tax Rebate Services.

A Tax Rebate Service makes the process of claiming your tax refunds a lot easier. They save you time as you don’t have to spend hours going through HMRC’s rules to find the ones that apply to you. With a tax rebate service, you also don’t need to worry about making a mistake (even a genuine one) on a submission form, and the implications this can have for you.

Some of the best tax rebate services include;

RIFT Tax Refunds.

Rift Tax Refunds provide an easy and straightforward service. Their average refund is worth £2500. If you refer a friend to the service you earn £50. You also get a £150 bonus if you refer 5 friends to the service.

Rift Tax Refunds also partner with ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.

SWIFT Tax Refunds.

SWIFT Tax Refunds have a no refund, no fee guarantee and their average refund is worth £2500. 

If you refer a friend to the service you earn £50 in Amazon vouchers. You also get a bonus of £250 in Amazon vouchers if you refer 5 friends.

FORCES MONEY

FORCES Money have a no tax refund, no charge policy and their average claim is £1721. Their application process is easy, and you get £25 for every friend that you refer.

 

Sources:

https://www.forces.net/services/tri-service/armed-forces-tax-refunds-everything-you-need-know
https://workmileagetaxrebate.co.uk/armed-forces-tax-rebate/

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