What counts as the benefit

A percentage fee needs a base, and this clause defines it. The sample casts the net wide: the Benefit includes cash, a reduction in tax you would otherwise have paid, and a loss or credit carried forward to a later year. It then measures the whole thing on the amount stated in the claim as filed.

Each part changes what you pay. A benefit that arrives as a reduction in tax rather than cash still attracts the fee, so you may be paying the fee from money that has not arrived. A loss carried forward may not turn into a benefit for years, if ever, and the fee is due now. Measuring on the claim as filed means a later reduction does not reduce the fee unless another clause says so.

A version that is easy to live with defines the Benefit as the amount of credit or relief you actually receive, says how a reduction in tax and a carried forward amount are treated and when the fee on them falls due, and points to the clause that adjusts the fee if the claim is reduced. A worked example on your own figures shows which amount the percentage applied to.

A version to ask more about defines the Benefit as the amount claimed, includes amounts carried forward with the fee due immediately, or leaves a word like "obtained" or "value" to do the work of a definition. Ask for one sentence that names the amount in words you can check, and for that sentence to go into the letter.

Contract law differs by country, and so does what a letter can and cannot do. Ask a lawyer to review your own letter before you sign it.

• What exactly is the fee a percentage of?
• Is the fee based on the benefit claimed or received?
• When and how is the fee paid?

• The script: asking how the fee is calculated
• The clause that follows from this one: fee refund if the claim is reduced
• Red flag: unclear fee base. Percentage of refund fees