hope somebody out there can advise me on this subject and would especially like to here from anyone who works for any of these cis refund specialist companies advertised all over the papers and the web!              ( google 'cis refunds' and they all pop up)

firstly I am a registered agent but only have 9 clients who I help out for free every year with their returns - i.e. friends/family etc, recently my hubby has changed his job (still a subcontractor taxed under cis deductions) and now works with a large contractor who use 200 plus other subbies who my hubby now mixes with on a daily basis (easy access to potential large market of clients). He has asked quite a few of his colleagues who actually does their tax returns for them each year and approx 80% of them use various 'tax refund specialists' who charge really quite a significant sum either in a % form as a fee or a fixed fee ranging from £140 - £300.00. Have been doing some research and think I could happily undercut these rebate companies and get quite a few clients as my hubby works with them.

However how do these 'rebate specialists' avoid the crazy delays of the 'repayment security checks' that I have got stuck with in the past -especially the ones that go to the black hole of the Bristol repayment security team? Looking at these rebate companies they quote on their websites that they use 'special software and their relationship with hmrc to ensure a faster repayment' - is this nonsense or true?

Before taking steps further and acquiring clients on a paid for basis I am trying to minimise the risk of any new client having to wait weeks and maybe months for their rebate..as this will make me look unprofessional and my hubby being questioned to why their mate used such and such company and only waited 3 weeks and Ive been waiting over two months etc.

As far as Im aware all I can do (don't know if it makes any difference) my end will consist of the following:

1) Have a 64 - 8 in place

2) make sure I have all their years earnings and cis monthly tax statements and they are all 100% accurate

3) Any repayment due from hmrc will go directly to a separate dedicated client account (business account set up by me)

4)use professional tax agent software (i.e. taxcalc, sage,ptp etc)

5)when filing electronically use only a static ip address (no dongle or internet shop) - dont know if this is nonsense but heard from an accountant friend because of fraud in the past returns received by this method are more scrutinised (who knows?) but sounds plausible (he doesnt do subcontractor refunds or knows anything about cis!)

 Absolutely any advice / guidance welcome.....thanks for reading....gem