TAX NEWS - JUNE 2010

UK Tax: Elderly UK woman gets £1.5M rebate check after tax authority blunders

AN elderly British woman who was owed a £33 ($48) rebate after a tax mix-up was stunned to get a check - for £1,511,533.80

Elizabeth Jenkins, 86, called the UK tax authority after realising they wrongly took £33 from her account, UK newspaper the Sunday Mirror reported.

But after she received nothing for six months, she contacted it again - only to discover that a check was issued to the wrong person.

Eventually, a check was sent to Jenkins - but not for £33. The widowed mother-of-two got a big shock when a check for £1,511,533.80 landed on her doormat.

"We handle huge numbers of tax repayments and unfortunately things sometimes go wrong," a spokesman for the tax authority said.