Claim tax back on Limited leave to remain visa?

My civil partner has been in the UK 3 years now and is currently on a Limited Leave to remain visa due to expire in August '09 (he was previously on a holiday working visa and had started but not finished sponsorship process with an employer which turned out to be not needed as we got married). His friends that have left the UK have been able to claim their UK tax back on leaving(quite a hefty amount!) and we were wondering if he could do the same on the previous 3 years worth of work?

The unhelpful woman on the tax office phoneline said that he could not claim for past years but I know this is not true.

Would he have to be leaving the country anytime soon to claim back? He is planning on getting indefinite leave to remain but we were hoping to get tax money back before applying for that.

Some companies offer to sort this all out for a 10% fee which I don't like the idea of paying as it should be easy to do it ourselves. but of course its not easy at all and I'm struggling to know where to start with. Any suggestions?

Rich.

what sort of tax does he think he can claim back? income tax? if he's been living and working in the uk for such a long time, and is applying for ilr, then it will be difficult for him to claim non-resident status successfully.

ian.

Yes it would appear that the 3 year mark is the point at which "residency" changes apparently as I have just found out from a chartered accountant. For others reference what matters here is the residency status and the original intention on whether the person wants to stay in the country and whether that intention has changed at all.

Looks like we're s**t out of luck getting any money back on this one! Ah well. at least we don't have to worry about tax status being all paid up in one or other countries.or do we? I'm wondering if some kind of information has to get passed back to Canada to prove that he has been paying tax here and does not need to file a return over there?

being uk resident for income tax does not mean that a person is non-resident for canadian income tax: it's perfectly possible to be tax-resident in both countries. if ur partner maintains a bank account in canada, then he almost certainly needs to apply to revenue canada to claim non-resident status because, as i understand it, canadian income tax is charged on worldwide income for those who do not claim non-resident status. see also the thread below.

http://www.canuckabroad.com/forums/cana ... t4387.html

ian.

I just used an agency http://www.taxfix.co.uk to do it, they did charge 9% but its worth it if you dont want to deal with the Inland Revenue.