Tax credits – When you need to renew your tax credit claims

Renew your tax credits claim as quickly as possible. The sooner you renew, the sooner the Tax Credit Office can work out your payments for the coming tax year. If you delay you may be paid too much tax credits – an ‘overpayment’ - that you have to pay back. If you don't renew, your payments will stop.

If you received both an Annual Declaration form and an Annual Review notice

Give the information asked for as quickly as possible – and definitely no later than 31 July. Your renewal pack will tell you if you have a different deadline.

The earlier you renew, the sooner the Tax Credit Office can make sure:

· they paid you the correct amount for the last tax year

· that you are getting the right amount of money for the coming tax year

If you delay, you could build up an overpayment that you have to pay back.

If you can’t provide details of actual income for the last tax year, still renew using an estimate of your income.

A tax year runs from 6 April one year to 5 April the next.

If you've given details of estimated income - deadline for providing actual income

This is usually 31 January but check Step C of your Annual Review notice to see if you've been given a different date.

If you miss the deadline for renewing

If the Tax Credit Office doesn’t hear from you by 31 July - or the deadline on your renewal pack - they will:

· stop your tax credits payments

· send you a statement showing you whether you've been paid too much, or not enough, tax credits

You then have a further 30 days to provide the information asked for. If you don't provide the information within 30 days, you will usually have to make a new tax credits claim.

The Tax Credit Office will ask you to pay back any overpayments from the last tax year - and any payments made to you since 6 April.

If you received an Annual Review notice only

You only need to renew if the information in your Annual Review notice has changed, or if anything is wrong, missing or incomplete.

Give the information asked for as quickly as possible - and definitely no later than 31 July. Your renewal pack will tell you if you have a different deadline.

The earlier you renew, the sooner the Tax Credit Office can make sure:

· they paid you the correct amount for the last tax year

· that you are getting the right amount of money for the coming tax year

If you delay, you could build up an overpayment that you have to pay back.

A tax year runs from 6 April one year to 5 April the next.

If you miss the deadline

If the Tax Credit Office doesn’t hear from you, they:

· treat the information on your Annual Review notice as correct and complete for the whole of the period shown

· check the payments you received against the information they have about your circumstances

· make a final decision on your award for the last year

If the Tax Credit Office decides to carry on paying you tax credits and then later find that you knew this information was not right or incomplete, you may be asked to pay back any money you should not have had. You might also be asked to pay a penalty.