As HMRC is now issuing emails and text messages to self-assessment taxpayers ahead of the 2020/21 filing deadline, the department issued a reminder to taxpayers to be on their guard after nearly 800,000 tax-related scams were reported in the last year. This reminder is available on our website and online on HMRC’s news desk.

The Institute also asked HMRC to ensure their system filters out those taxpayers who have already submitted returns, so that they are not receiving a reminder about something which has already been done. We are aware that this has happened previously, which increases calls to agents and HMRC to ask why a taxpayer is being chased to do something they’ve done already.

HMRC responded to this as follows:-

“We take every care to ensure that the customers we are contacting throughout SA Peak are the right customers and at the right stage of filing their returns/paying their tax liability. We use the most up-to-date data available to us, but this can at times take up to 72 hours to update.

Data is checked to assure its correct, within an agreeable tolerance of the 72 hours (as above) and we try to make our emails as clear and concise as possible - for customers who may have recently taken action on their accounts.”