From: "figgy" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: child tax credits and annual tax returns
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 12:01:04 +0100

I submit annual tax returns and declare the annual details when claiming 
child tax credits. Perhaps I've been naive but I sort of got the (wrong) 
impression that the return for 02/03 was to be used to calculate the child 
tax credits for 03/04 and so on. (This is what they did after all). I had a 
bad year in 02/03. I dutifully declared the details in my ctc claim and they 
started paying loads of money into my bank account. I sort of thought I was 
entitled to that money. They never said "This is a provisional award based 
on best information and it will be reassessed when you declare your actual 
03/04 income,  so a) are you sure you want to tell us about your irrelevant 
bad year and b) now we've paid out, don't go spending it because you'll 
probably have to pay it all back". They just said "Here you are. This is 
what you're entitled to based on the info you've given us."  So anyway now 
I've got a massive overpayment which has fairly jiggered my finances.
What I want to know is, was anybody else in the country under the same 
misapprehension? Did it explain anywhere in the bumf that 03/04 would only 
be finalised when they received the actual 03/04 tax return details?
figgy