If  You Already Received A Payment for Mis-sold PPI, Then You Could Be Eligible For a Tax Refund Also

The money you recieved for PPI claim had up to three main elements:

1. A refund of the PPI you paid.
2. If the bank added an extra loan to your original loan just to pay for the PPI, you get back any interest you were charged on this extra loan.
3. You get statutory interest (at 8% a year, but not compounded) on the total of both those sums, for each year since you got the PPI.

Of these, only the third element is liable to be taxed (usually at 20%). This is usually shown on the pay-out statement. 

You may still be due a Tax Refund on your Payout

If tax is due on PPI pay-outs, most lenders will have deducted it automatically at the basic 20% rate before you get the money, but if you are a non-taxpayer then you have the right to claim all of the money back from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

In April 2016 the personal savings allowance was introduced which allows taxpayers to earn up to £1,000 a year tax-free on their savings which includes the statutory interest paid on PPI claims.

Since then, while most savings interest has been paid ‘gross’, ie, without any tax being taken off, PPI still has 20% automatically deducted.

And as PPI is taxed as a lump sum payment at the point it is paid, most people who have paid tax on PPI pay-outs since then are entitled to some money back.

Was your PPI payment after 6 April 2016

The PPI pay-out is taxed in the year it is paid, so even if you took out a PPI policy in, say, 2004, if it was repaid in 2016, it’s that later tax regime that counts.

If you were a non-taxpayer in the year the PPI was paid out (eg, currently that means those earning less than the £12,500 personal allowance), unless the statutory interest pushes you over the taxpaying threshold, you can claim all the tax back.

For most taxpayers, as well as the normal income-tax personal allowance, since 6 April 2016, the personal savings allowance is a further specific amount you are allowed to earn tax-free just on savings interest:

• Basic 20% rate taxpayers (earning c. £12,500-£50,000) can earn £1,000 in interest a year tax-free.
• Higher 40% rate taxpayers (earning c. £50,000-£150,000) can earn £500 in interest a year tax-free.
• Top 45% rate taxpayers (earning over £150,000) don’t get a personal savings allowance.

If the total interest earned from savings and PPI statutory interest is less than your personal savings allowance, you are due all PPI tax paid back.

You can only claim back four tax years, as well as the current one, which means the furthest you can go back is the 2015/16 tax year. 

Claims for PPI payments received before April 2016

As basic-rate taxpayers should’ve been paying 20% tax, and that’s what was automatically deducted, there’s nothing to claim back. Yet non-taxpayers or those earning just enough to pay tax but not much more, so were on the starting savings should be able to reclaim some or all the tax on this just like other savings income.