Tax letters issued by HMRC

Up to 14,000 taxpayers have received an ‘intervention’ letter this week from HM Revenue & Customs

The government has sent out 70 different kinds of letter, detailing common mistakes in tax filings that individuals may have made. The letters are intended to resolve problems without opening costly enquiries.

An example letter provided by HMRC suggests taxpayers look again at their arrangements and re-file returns: ‘I am not suggesting that you have made errors but I would like you to review your declarations made within the past 12 months and let me have, by (insert date), details of how any such (disposals/transactions) were dealt with together with: confirmation that your declarations are correct; or a schedule of disposals/transactions) along with your revised figure for (tax type), in order that I can recalculate your tax liabilities,’ .

If you receive such a letter don’t get too worried; it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have done anything wrong or have an unkown tax liability somewhere. By all means double check that what you have submitted is indeed correct or speak to your accountant, but bear in mind that HMRC are just targetting those people that statistically are either more likely to make an error or hide something. If you are confident everything is okay then stick to your guns.