HMRC accepts service of legal proceedings by email
New legal proceedings and pre-action letters can be served on HMRC by email.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) requests that, where possible, new legal proceedings and pre-action letters are served on the department using email instead of post.
For new legal proceedings
New legal proceedings in England and Wales to be served on the Solicitor for HMRC can be emailed to us: newproceedings@hmrc.gov.uk.
If you use email instead of hard copy, you must send the relevant documents to this email address - whether or not an HMRC lawyer, paralegal or litigator has already been assigned to the case.
HMRC may challenge any attempt to serve new legal proceedings on the department using a different HMRC email address.
Pre-action letters
Correspondence required to be sent to the Solicitor for HMRC in compliance with any pre-action protocol to the Civil Procedure Rules, including the Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review, can also be emailed to us: preactionletters@hmrc.gov.uk.
Unless you are asked, please do not send duplicates in hard copy.
Attachments
If you are including attachments with your email, please ensure they:
- are in PDF or MS Word
- do not exceed 25mb (total)
If you are likely to exceed the 25mb limit, please split the contents into smaller emails. If this is not practical, you should serve the principal documents (such as the claim form and particulars of claim) and ask HMRC to contact you to make alternative arrangements to serve the remaining documents.
Employment law claims
Please note that the service of employment law claims on HMRC, and associated documentation, must be sent to expertadviceservice@hmrc.gov.uk.
Other correspondence
All these email addresses are for the service of new proceedings and pre-action letters only. They should not be used if you want to:
- request a review of a tax decision by HMRC. For this please follow the guidance on the GOV.UK page: Disagree with a tax decision
- appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber). For this, please refer to the guidance on GOV.UK: Appeal to the tax tribunal
Any other correspondence sent to these email addresses will not be read and will be deleted.
If you need to contact HMRC with a general query about your tax position, please see Contact HMRC.
Follow-up service
After new proceedings have been validly served on HMRC, an HMRC lawyer, paralegal or litigator will be allocated the case.
For follow-up service, please use the HMRC email address of the allocated lawyer, paralegal or litigator unless the parties to the proceedings are informed of other arrangements.
Last updated 18 March 2024 + show all updates
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Updated to confirm that this is a permanent change and not just limited to COVID-19 arrangements.
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Added new section about where to send employment law claims on HMRC.
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Added information to 'Other correspondence' section to make more clear.
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First published.