SAM110132 - Repayments: issue repayment: assignment received (Action Guide)
Source: gov.uk (2025-07-28)


Note: This action guide concerns Assignments received before 15/03/23. New legislation under section 333 of the Finance (No.2) Act 2023 has removed the right of customers to assign repayments to agents. This guidance is therefore only applicable to cases received before that date. Any assignments received by HMRC on or after 15 March 2023 will be legally invalid and any repayment will remain the property of the taxpayer.

When an assignment relating to an ITSA claimant is received, if it cannot be dealt with immediately, for example the return from which the assigned repayment will be generated has been logged but not yet captured, follow steps 1 - 4 below

For details of how to access the SA functions, select ‘Index of Functions’ on the left of the screen.

Initial action

1.

Check that an assignment nominating a different party is not already in place.

If so,
- Send the new assignment back to the sender with a letter to advise that an assignment is already in force and that, in order to put the new assignment in place, the previous assignment must be revoked and the agreement to that revocation signed by both parties and sent to us, with the new assignment if appropriate. Also advise that the assignment currently in place will apply as appropriate until revocation is received
- Make an SA note of your actions
If not, continue the steps below

2.

If the assignment cannot be dealt with immediately, use function AMEND TAXPAYER SIGNALS to set the 'No repayment' signal on the claimants SA record (if not already set for some other reason)

3.

Calculate the BF date at which the No Repayment signal can be lifted

Note: The Assignment may cover not only the repayment arising from the capture of the return, but also any repayments arising from amendments to that return or overpayment relief claims, so, all repayments covered by the Assignment must be prevented from being automatically issued.

For example, where the assigned repayment is for all repayments arising for the 2009-2010 tax year, the BF date will be
- 4 years from the end of the relevant year. For example, 2009-2010 - 5 April 2010 plus 4 years is 5 April 2014 Or
- 31 January following the end of the year or 3 months from receipt of a Notice to File by the taxpayer (whichever is the later)
4.

Use function MAINTAIN SA NOTES to record that an assignment has been received by entering the following note (in capitals) ‘ASSIGNMENT RECEIVED TO (NAME OF ASSIGNEE) FOR YEARS (LIST YEARS) and show the BF date calculated as in step 3. Note: You must clearly show the repayment to which the Assignment relates

Note: Any assignments received on or after 21 July 2008 are secondary to set-off (S133 FA2008). All outstanding SA debts will be cleared first then set-off to any other HMRC debts for the taxpayer (S130 FA2008), plus set-off against any assignee’s debts, before any remaining amount of the assigned repayment is sent to the assignee.

The assignee may differ from a previous nomination submitted by the claimant for the same tax year(s), the repayment must be issued using function ISSUE REPAYMENT FROM OVERPAID BALANCE by following the guidance for repayment work list W030 - Inhibited Automatic Repayments at SAM113011 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/self-assessment-manual/sam113011)