What Do I Need For An MOD Tax Rebate?

MOD tax refunds can be complicated, but RIFT's experts in Forces travel and expenses handle everything for you. All we need is the bases you've been at, copies of your assignment orders, and details of any any courses you've been on. We also need your payslips and other supporting documents such as ID and proof of address.

What can I claim for as part of my military tax refund?

As part of your RIFT Tax Refund you can claim for things like Mess dress, food costs and travel. You can get an idea of how much you might be able to claim back by using our Military Tax Refund calculator and it will give you an instant estimate of how much your refund could be.

How long does an MOD tax refund take to process?

It takes about 8-10 weeks for HMRC to process your MOD tax refund. RIFT has 7 military claims specialist teams working hard to maximise your refund and get it to you fast.The sooner you start your MOD tax relief claim and provide the information we need, the sooner you get your cash back.

Will my tax code change if I claim an MOD Tax Refund?

It can so it's important to keep an eye on your tax code. If you notice any changes, tell RIFT Tax Refunds straight away so we can sort it for you. We'll do this as part of our aftercare service and you can avail of it all year around.

Military Tax Refunds

Serving and retired military personnel can claim Armed Forces tax refunds for travel and mileage expenses for the last 4 years, including travel to postings of under 24 months. The average Armed Forces tax refund comes to £3,000 (based on an average 4-year claim. Typically, customers will pay 36% in fees. Exclusions apply). It takes less than a minute to get your claim claimed. Click the button below to find out if you could be owed money from HMRC.

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over £150m claimed in MOD tax rebates
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Military ClaimsWhat expenses and military activities count towards my military tax refund?

To get the most from an Armed Forces tax refund, you need to claim for more than just travel costs to temporary postings. Military tax refund claims can also include things like:

Mess dress
Food costs
Time spent on secondments or a temporary place of duty, including in support of MACA, such as at Covid-19 testing stations.
Career courses and trade training, including CMT or even resettlement courses.
Training conducted at civilian locations such as universities, if it’s part of your career development.
Pre and Post Deployment training.
Regular assignments of under 2 years, both in UK and overseas.

For an instant estimate of how much you’re owed, try out our RIFT Military tax rebates calculator. It only takes a minute to get started.

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MOD Tax RefundsWhat do I need for an Armed Forces tax rebate?

With RIFT, even complicated MOD tax refunds are simple and hassle-free. Our specialist teams are experts in Armed Forces money and travel, and take care of all the hard work and heavy lifting of claiming your refunds.

Here’s the basic paperwork it takes to get back everything HMRC owes you:

A list of bases you've attended. Copies of assignment orders are a big help here. You can grab them from JPA if you’re quick, but remember they’re deleted after 60 days. If you’ve spent time and cash on attending courses, remember to include records of these for your claim.
Your monthly payslips. If you can’t lay your hands on all of these, you can download copies from the JPAC website.
Supporting documents. We’re talking about any other evidence you have of the cash you’re shelling out to do your job. Receipts for Mess Dress, MOT certificates, P60s and P45s are all great things to show HMRC – but don’t stress out if you don’t have everything at your fingertips. RIFT can still make your claim without a lot of this paperwork, and can even track down missing details to fill in the blanks.
Proof of ID. Like a passport or driving licence
Proof of address. Like a utility bill
Other information. With the basics sorted, we’ll ask you a couple of simple questions about your money situation. HMRC will want to know about any other cash you’ve got coming in, for example, or whether you’re paying off a Student Loan or have a private pension. There are specific rules about your accommodation that affect the military refund you’re owed, so talk us through your living arrangements, too.

We’ll help you set up a Personal Tax Account, if you don’t already have one. It’s free, and means you can see all your important tax, employer and other information in one place.

To keep everything simple, we’ll set you up with a free MyRIFT account as well. With MyRIFT, you can track your claim and update all the details of your claim from anywhere in the world. Keeping those key details up-to-date is essential, and MyRIFT puts you in the driving seat and on the fast track.

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The RIFT Guarantee

When you claim tax back with RIFT, our unique RIFT Guarantee means that you don't have to worry about the taxman taking back any of your money.

Certified tax specialists working on your claim
Protecting your refund once paid to you
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Military Tax Refund Customer Story - Meet Alex

Specialist TeamRIFT Armed Forces Team

At RIFT, many members of our Armed Forces teams come from military backgrounds and families. We understand the many unique challenges of Armed Forces life, and know the demands it places on you.

In addition to being the UK’s top tax refund specialists, RIFT has always been a strong champion of the UK’s Armed Forces. Our Military Engagement events are an opportunity for us to reach out to the Armed Forces and spread the word about tax refunds. Our Armed Forces Liaison Officer, Rebecca Davies, completed 22 years of service, bringing first-hand military experience to the role. Whether visiting clients, colleagues, or units, Becks is always ready to provide guidance and support wherever it’s needed, driven by a personal mission to give back to those who serve.

Those connections have allowed us to earn Gold status in the Armed Forces Covenant, in recognition of our support for military personnel and their families. Our partnership with ABF The Soldiers’ Charity allows us to do even more, both through regular donations and our sponsorship of (and participation in) their projects and fundraising.

In addition to this, we're the UK's top tax refund specialists. The rules around Armed forces tax refund claims are complex in places, but our specialists’ understanding of them is always up to date and to-the-letter. We know your time is valuable, so we’re here for you all year round, whenever you need us.

Use our online military tax refund calculator for an instant estimate of what you could claim.

Meet the Team

Discounted rate of 25%RIFT achieves the Gold Employer Recognition Award Scheme

The Armed Forces Covenant is about honouring the commitments and sacrifices made by former and serving military personnel. The RIFT family has always treasured our close ties to the Armed Forces community, and we work hard to uphold the values and promise of the Armed Forces Covenant.

In 2020, we were delighted to be awarded the AFC’s prestigious Gold status. To celebrate, we announced a discounted fee of 25% for returning MOD tax rebate customers.

Earning AFC Gold Status meant looking hard at RIFT as a company, inside and out. We wanted to see what more we could do to ensure that former and serving Armed Forces personnel are never put at a disadvantage by their service. We built new positions for MOD veterans within the business and found new ways of reaching out to the military community. We also made work more flexible for Service members and their spouses.

It’s an honour to serve MOD personnel, tackling their tax rebate claims and much more. We’re here to fight for you, so you’re always better off with RIFT.

Army Benevolent FundArmy Benevolent Fund and RIFT Tax Refunds

ABF is an amazing organisation, helping military personnel and families through times of hardship and bereavement. RIFT is honoured to partner with the charity to support its work through direct donations, along with promoting and participating in their events and activities. So far, we’ve made over £300,000 in donations as corporate sponsors of Army Benevolent Fund.

Army Benevolent Fund

Armed forces tax rebateThe MOD supports Armed Forces tax rebates

It’s important to realise that military tax refunds aren’t some “dodge” around the tax rules or a prize you can win. Tax refunds are your legal right, and the money you get back is simply a repayment of tax you shouldn’t have paid in the first place.

On the 8 May 2014, the Ministry of Defence confirmed in a letter to RIFT that service personnel can claim tax rebates. DIN '2015DIN01-005' was issued to all service personnel to officially confirm that service personnel can claim tax refunds against travel expenses on postings of under 24 months, even outside of the UK. This categorically removes any confusion which our MOD clients may have had about whether they could claim a tax refund.

Here's an extract from the office MOD statement:

A tax refund may be claimed for the difference between the HMRC allowed rate of £0.45 per mile* and the MOD £0.21 per mile tax exempt allowance (i.e. on £0.24 per mile), provided the individual is on temporary duty, as defined by the relevant HMRC legislation, not by MOD policy. Please accept my reassurances that all of the relevant policy directorates are now aware of this basis for a valid claim for a tax rebate on home to duty mileage, as agreed with HMRC.

I hope that the above addresses your concerns and assures you that MOD is not preventing service personnel from submitting claims for tax rebates to HMRC. Should service personnel wish to avail themselves of your services, that is a matter for them.

What Are The MOD Rules For Tax Refunds?

MOD Tax RefundsHow tax refunds work in the Armed Forces

John, from Blackburn in Lancashire, has been an Armed Forces member since 2014. Back in July of 2015, he was posted for 2 years to RAF Benson. 8 months into that posting, however, he was deployed on operational tour. After 6 months, he returned to RAF Benson, where he remained for another 8 months before transferring to Cambridge for a year. John then spent a total of 16 months at Blackwater. Throughout much of this time, he drove home most weekends from his UK bases, for a grand total of around 400 miles of travel per week.

When it came to claiming mileage tax relief, he came to RIFT. Our specialist MOD teams know Armed Forces money and tax like the back of their hands, so we knew instantly that we could get him back everything he was owed. As he’d spent under 24 months at each base he was posted to, they all qualified as “temporary workplaces” in the taxman’s eyes. That meant that John’s travel costs were eligible for a military tax refund.

John received an allowance under the Get You Home scheme of about £3,000 a year, tax-free. That brought down the amount he could claim a bit, but he was still delighted to receive a refund totalling £3,310 and covering 4-years’ worth of travel.

MOD Tax Rebate FAQs

HMRC Processing TimeHow long does an Armed Forces Tax Refund take?

HMRC usually takes about 8-10 weeks to process a military tax refund claim. RIFT Tax Refunds has 7 dedicated military claims specialist teams working hard to get the very best from your refund - and get it to you fast. The sooner you set the wheels rolling by sending RIFT the information we need, the sooner you’ll get back what you’re owed.

Tax Rebate Timelines

Tax AdviceWill my tax code change if I claim an Armed Forces tax refund?

It’s worth keeping an eye on your tax code. It tells HMRC how much you can earn before you start paying tax, and lists any special circumstances that apply to you. When you claim a military tax refund, HMRC will sometimes change your code to account for the expenses you’ve had.

The trouble is, the taxman tends to assume that those expenses will stay the same from year to year. As anyone living the Armed Forces life will know, that’s probably not true – particularly when there’s overseas travel involved. Being on the wrong tax code means you’ll end up being charged the wrong amount of tax. At some point you’ll have to settle up with HMRC, one way or the other.

Of course, your tax code can change for all sorts of reasons. They’re not all necessarily bad news, either. Your code will change when your tax-free Personal Allowance goes up, for example. That means you’ll be able to earn more before the taxman takes a bite.

The point is that you need to keep your eyes open when it comes to tax codes, and to kick up a fuss if yours ever looks wrong. The system can be tough to get our head around, so even though HMRC’s supposed to let you know when (and why) they’re changing your tax code, it’s still easy to lose your footing if you don’t know the rules.

Whatever happens to your tax code, RIFT has your back. When we take care of your Armed Forces tax refund, we'll automatically check whether any changes have been made to your tax code. If it’s wrong, we’ll get it fixed without costing you a penny. It's all part of the RIFT Tax Refunds service!

A lot of people don’t really know where they stand when it comes to tax codes. Check out RIFT’s HMRC tax codes explained page for more information.

HMRC Tax Codes Explained

Food tax refundsCan Armed Forces personnel claim a tax rebate for meals?

Meals are allowed as expenses when you're posted to a temporary base, and you should definitely be claiming for them. On average, a yearly MOD tax refund claim includes around £250 from meal expenses alone! Claiming a tax rebate against those costs could boost your tax refund by as much as 35%, which stacks up to about £12,000 over a typical working life!

Here are some things to keep in mind:

If you’re paying by cash in a Cookhouse or Mess, the odds are you won’t have much in the way of receipts. You should still keep records, though. You’d be surprised how much of a difference a simple photo of a menu board could make to your refund at the end of the tax year.
Officers sometimes have the option of an expenses receipt at the end of the month. Again, even a photo of this uploaded to your MyRIFT account could be a major boost to your tax refund claim. If you can keep hold of your receipts or get copies from your administration department, that’s great too.
If you’re on the Hungry Soldier scheme, the cost comes directly out of your salary in arrears. Keep hold of your payslips so you always have this information on hand.
Exactly what you can claim for will always vary according to your circumstances. Talk to RIFT Tax Refunds to find out exactly what you qualify for.

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MOD Tax RefundsArmed forces travel refund information

Whichever Service branch you’re in (or were in during the last 4-years), you’re entitled to an MOD tax refund from HMRC when you pay for essential travel from your own pocket. Even if you've already left the Armed Forces, you can still get tax back for travel to temporary postings in the last 4 tax years.

In the Armed Forces, travel tax rebates have often been a touchy subject. RIFT fought hard alongside HMRC and the MOD to clear up the bad information floating about and get Forces Mileage Claims back on the table. Crucially, you could still be owed money even if you're already getting a travel refund at the Motor Mileage Allowance rate.

For instance, suppose you're getting an MMA allowance of 20p per mile travelled. For essential work travel to temporary postings, HMRC says you should be getting:

45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles travelled in a tax year.
25p per mile after that.

The MMA rate here is actually lower than HMRC's own Approved Mileage Allowance payment (AMAP) rates. Assuming you're covered by HMRC's travel refund rules, you should be claiming a Forces travel refund based on the difference between the AMAP and MMA rates. Use our free mileage expenses calculator to see how much you could be due back from HMRC.

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Complex travel journeysHow much information do you need about the journeys I'm making?

As a basic rule of thumb, the more information we have about the work travel you’re doing, the better the outcome when your refund’s paid out. Armed Forces travel refund claims can be complicated, particularly when multi-leg journeys and overseas postings are involved. Wherever possible, telling us about each stage of your journeys to and from base will give us the best possible start for your Forces claim. Those little details might not seem important, but they can quickly stack up into a much larger refund.

For example, suppose you were posted to Bad Fallingbostel, back before the base was closed. Let's say you were living in Ashford, Kent at the time. The journey to your posting might look something like:

Driving about 23 miles to Dover.
Taking the ferry from Dover to Calais.
Driving or taking public transport for close to 450 miles from Calais to the base in Bad Fallingbostel.

You might expect claiming a tax refund in Germany would be a nightmare. Every leg of that journey adds to your total travel costs. Not only are you burning fuel on the land sections, but you've also shelled out for the ferry costs. The cost of international travel can also vary considerably at different times of the year, or even different times of the day.

When you’re making a MOD tax refund claim, HMRC will want every detail you can throw at them, so keeping complete records is critical. If you haven’t got fundamental paperwork like receipts, it’s tricky to get the taxman to reach into his pocket. Worse still, claiming without proper evidence to back up your expenses is an incredibly bad idea. Spot-check enquiries from HMRC are a nightmare, so RIFT will never claim a penny that we can’t prove you’re owed. That’s how we keep both your money and you completely safe.

Of course, with MyRIFT, all those crucial details are simple to track, amend and update. Wherever in the world you are, you can fill in the costs you're paying as you go. With that information securely stored, we'll be able to build a complete picture of what HMRC owes you.

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MOD Tax RefundsDo I need to keep my Assignment Orders?

Yes, definitely! These are very important documents and the cornerstone evidence for putting your tax refund claim together. Try to keep a copy of your Assignment Orders for every base you’ve travelled to. If you’ve got gaps in your record, you can print your orders off from JPA as long as you do it within 60 days.

Keeping recordsHow should I keep my records for my fuel tax rebate?

HMRC expects you to keep spotless records when you claim an Armed Forces tax refund. One of the best ways to do this is with a log book, which you can get from RIFT. Whenever you’re travelling to and from temporary postings of under 24 months, make a point of recording your mileage in your book. It pays to be thorough and systematic when you’re dealing with the taxman, and you’ll be glad you were when your refund rolls in. Making a note of the mileage on your vehicle’s clock is a great idea, so remember to check it at both ends of your journeys. Alternatively, to keep things super-simple, just keep notes of the postcodes or addresses instead and leave the mileage calculations to us.

If log books are a little old-fashioned for you, your free, online MyRIFT account is an even better way to keep all your travel and other information up to date in real time. At any time and from anywhere in the world, you can log in to check details, update information and even upload photographs of important documents straight into your account. Or, you can track your claim with the RIFT Tax Refunds app.

Remember that not every mile you put under your wheels will count toward your military refund claim. Knowing which journeys count and which don’t is the key to keeping out trouble with HMRC, while still getting the most out of your claim. With RIFT keeping you covered, you’ll always know you and your tax rebate are protected.

Keeping recordsWhy do I need to provide wage slips?

HMRC’s going to want to see a thorough breakdown of your travel costs before coughing up your refund. Your wage slips show whether you've already received any expenses toward your travel. Since you’re only owed a refund on costs you’ve actually paid out yourself, any expenses you’ve received will bring down what you’re owed by HMRC. If you’ve received nothing toward your travel, your wage slips will prove this.

Keeping recordsWhat if I haven't got my wage slips or P60's?

Don’t stress out too much if you don’t have these to hand. You can download your wage slips from the JPAC website and RIFT can get your P60s straight from HMRC for you.

MOD Tax RefundsCan I claim a UK tax refund if I'm posted overseas?

When you’re travelling for work, you're entitled to a UK tax rebate for your expenses to and from temporary workplaces. If you're making your own way overseas from a UK residence, you could have a pretty big refund claim on your hands. Watch out, though - if your family has moved abroad with you, then your main residence might be outside the UK. In that case, you can't claim for your travel costs.

Find out everything you need to know about paying UK tax if you work overseas on our site, or get in touch by phone or email for expert advice and information.

MOD Tax RefundsWhat costs can I reclaim tax for?

If you've been using your own vehicle or public transport, you could be owed tax back.
An average Armed Forces tax refund comes to around £800 per year.
Travel to bases outside the UK counts too.
You might even be able to claim for Mess Dress.

You can get an estimate of what you could claim back using our military tax calculator. It takes barely a minute to complete and gives you an instant figure.

Preparing for deploymentI'm about to be deployed, what do I need to do?

Being deployed away from home means making sure your finances are taken care of. Most importantly, you'll need a plan for looking after the people you're leaving behind. Having your salary paid into an account they have access to might be a good move, for instance. You could use a joint account or set up temporary access for them through a “third party mandate” form. Check with your bank to see what your best option is.

While you're at it, you might want to arrange an overdraft on your account for safety. Overdrafts can be are a bit of a double-edged sword if you find yourself relying on them, but in a pinch it’s better to have one you don’t need than not to have one you do. This is particularly true if you won’t able to keep close tabs on your money while you're away. Setting up Direct Debits for any bills you usually take care of yourself is a smart move, too. Whatever financial decisions you make, be sure to talk them all through with the people they affect.

Other things to consider:

Setting up a will or power of attorney.
Deciding what to do with your car if it's not coming with you. Either make sure it's taxed and insured or get a Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN).
Check that your Personal Accident and Service Life insurance are all set up properly.

MOD Tax RebatesCan Reservists and Territorial Army personnel claim?

The HMRC rules for travel tax refunds say that you need to be travelling to temporary workplaces to qualify. Reservists and Territorial Army personnel tend to spend most of their service in one place, so they’re not usually eligible to claim.

That said, everyone’s circumstances are different, so there’s still a possibility that you’re owed some tax back. If you’re not sure where you stand, RIFT can always look into it for you – and we won’t charge a penny for it. That’s right - it costs you nothing at all to find out whether you have a claim. Just answer 4 simple questions to take the first step toward your Armed Forces tax rebate. They take less than a minute to complete and could be worth thousands of pounds for up to 4-years’ worth of military refund claims.

Find out if you need to complete a HMRC Self Assessment Tax Return or if you can claim Flat Rate Expenses.

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ToolsTax calculators

Need a quick and accurate estimate of your tax position? Check out our collection of free UK tax calculators to help you work out everything from your income tax, rental income tax and national insurance contributions to what you could claim back in your yearly mileage relief claims. Whether you're employed, self-employed or working through the CIS scheme, these tax calculators will give you a clearer view of your finances in seconds.

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