The tax credits deadline is 31 July. If you haven’t renewed your claim you need to act quickly but carefully. What steps should you be taking?
Deadline for 2023/24. The deadline for renewing your tax credits for 2023/24 is 31 July 2023. If you don’t renew your claim by then HMRC will stop your payments. While you will be able to restart them by making a late claim, you may permanently lose out on some of your entitlement.
Renewal packs. HMRC issued tax credit renewal packs to around 1.5 million people but apparently, hundreds of thousands are yet to respond. There are two types of renewal pack. These are clearly marked “reply now” or “check now”. If you received the latter you’ll see a black line across the front page. You only need to respond if your circumstances have changed in a way that affects your claim, e.g. the hours you work have changed. If you don’t, your claim will be renewed on the same terms. If you received a “reply now”, you’ll see a red line across the front page and you must respond by 31 July or your payments will stop.
No renewal pack. If you haven’t received your renewal pack, you need to get in touch without delay. You can call or use HMRC’s tax credits webchat (see The next step ). However, there’s a better alternative.
Tip. Use the HMRC app. It can be downloaded for all Android and Apple devices. There’s an HMRC short video on how to use the app including how to renew and keep track of your tax credit payments. You’ll find the information about renewal about 90 seconds in (see The next step ).
Scam warning. According to HMRC, there’s been a rise in scammers targeting tax credit claimants, especially as the deadline nears. You should be wary of emails or texts claiming your bank etc. details aren’t up to date so you risk losing out on payments and emails, texts claiming that a direct debit payment hasn’t gone through or requests for your tax credit login details. You should ignore such communications, but if in doubt contact HMRC’s tax credits section.
You must renew your tax credits claim for 2023/24 by 31 July 2023 or payments will stop. The quickest way to do this is to use HMRC’s app, which can be downloaded on all Android and Apple devices.
The next step
The app video
Tax credits: general enquiries
This article has been reproduced by kind permission of Indicator – FL Memo Ltd. For details of their tax-saving products please visit www.indicator-flm.co.uk or call 01233 653500.