HMRC recouping money from defrauded taxpayers

An HMRC press release of 22 June tells me that ‘new measures to stop rip-off agents taking advantage of people … have been proposed by HMRC’.

I don’t want to write about the consultation on Repayment Agents though. I want to write about Mike Grogan and Richard Tweddle.

Ripped off

But before I do I want to pose some questions to readers. Suppose someone steals my identity files a fictitious tax return in my name claiming a tax repayment and HMRC pays the money into the scammer’s bank account. When they discover they have been had should they be able to reclaim the tax repayment from me because the return was in my name? I hope everyone answered ‘no’.

Suppose now that I engage an agent to prepare my tax return. I send him a signed copy. He tears it up and files...