.png)
.png)
HMRC are demanding payments from taxpayers via letters that deliberately include no contact details.
Taxpayer are provided with no address or phone number to use if they wish to dispute the amount with the department, which refers to the written correspondences as ‘just pay’ letters and says ‘they are used on low-value, high-volume debts where the use of people-resources to chase would not be efficient’.
Taxation has seen a ‘just pay’ demand sent earlier this month to a company in response to an allegedly unpaid PAYE liability of £120 from 2006-07.
It provides details of a link on the Revenue’s website for making payments and threatens legal action, including the seizure and sale of goods or bankruptcy, if payment is not made.
While the letters shows the company’s PAYE reference number, there is no HMRC office address included. Instead, space is used to say ‘No contact required. Please pay on receipt.’ The telephone number is given as 000 000 000.
Taxation has confirmed that this lack of assistance is intentional. HMRC say the demands are ‘only sent to debtors who have already received correspondence containing contact details, and therefore have already been given one or more opportunities to contact us.
‘Where a debtor has been repeatedly advised of their liability, through correspondence with contact details, but has not taken steps to contact us to resolve the issue, it is not unreasonable for us to assume that they have no need of contact and to ask them to “just pay” their debt,’ said a department spokesperson.
However, Andrew Moore, the reader who received the letter on behalf of his company, Charmope Ltd, claimed he had received no previous correspondence from the taxman.
‘I have no record of having received demands for apparently unpaid PAYE between the date of the demand for the tax paid 8 May 2007 and [this demand],’ he said.
‘It is not my practice to ignore HMRC communications (whether they are right or wrong).’
HMRC have now accepted that payment was made in full but claim the problem was due to an error by Charmope Ltd.
‘It appears that the taxpayer was possibly at fault for not using the correct reference when making payment. It went to the current PAYE month by default instead of the underpayment,’ said the department, adding that ‘it is vital customers use the correct payslips’.
However, Mr Moore has shown Taxation evidence that payment was made by internet banking, and he says he quoted the same reference his company always uses.
With regards to the lack of contact details on the ‘just pay’ demands, the Revenue claims they do allow taxpayers to get in touch.
‘The “just pay” letters contain a link in the body of the text directing recipients to a website where they can obtain more information including telephone numbers,’ said a spokesperson.
‘While the intention of the letters is that the recipient should “just pay” what they owe, debtors receiving these letters do contact us using numbers from our website, and it is therefore clearly possible to do so.’
The link is mentioned in the written letter only as the method of making payment, and the webpage is primarily concerned with how to pay. A further series of links need to be followed to find contact details, and those relate to asking for further time to pay.
The demand concludes, ‘Do not ignore this letter unless you have paid in full’, which, since they cannot find any contact details by which to query the demand, may lead some who have paid in full – but where the payment has been incorrectly allocated – to ignore the letter and risk more serious consequences.
HMRC said, ‘It is in everyone’s interests that we deliver good value for taxpayers generally, and we would of course be very interested in Taxation readers’ views and experience.’
Taxation would also be interested to learn of other similar letters, and would welcome readers expressing their views as to whether sending out demands with no contact details meets HMRC’s charter obligations to ‘explain what you can do if you disagree with our decisions’ and ‘make it as cheap as we can for you to contact us’.
Email us at taxation@lexisnexis.co.uk.
