Policy paper

HMRC brand abuse policy

Published 5 April 2018

This policy addresses the growing threat of online brand abuse and how this affects HMRC and its customers.

1. Background

HMRC is rapidly transforming to provide more digital services and channels. To improve control over how we are represented online we need to uncover and mitigate the threat of our reputation being used to mislead our customers.

2. Actions

We take appropriate measures to ensure that our rights, customers, revenue streams and reputation are not at risk. The action taken by HMRC will depend on the level of threat of the infringement.

This is determined by the intent of the infringement and whether this was ‘accidental’, ‘indirect financial’ or ‘direct financial’. For a description on these 3 categories of intent, and examples, please read Appendix A (accompanying document).

3. Customer contact

HMRC will always try to contact the person responsible for the infringement first and ask them to remove the brand infringement. A contact email will be used primarily, but if this is not possible, the contact pages for the website will be used.

4. Abuse host referral

If, after second contact, the infringement has not been removed, HMRC will escalate it to the website host. The host can be identified through typing the domain into www.whois.net.

5. Search engine advertising

If the brand infringement is a paid advertisement on a search engine, HMRC will contact the search engine to remove the domain as an advertisement.

6. HMRC-registered agents

In 2013, HMRC issued a public statement, reported in the tax media, that tax agents should not advertise their services by using the HMRC logo or stating they are registered or authorised agents of HMRC.

HMRC has also published a standard for agents which states that agents should not be “suggesting or implying that HMRC endorses or regulates their role as an agent”.

The standard sets out HMRC’s powers to address poor agent practice:

• we can disclose cases of suspected agent misconduct to professional bodies for them to investigate further and consider disciplinary action
• we can refuse to deal with a tax agent, pursue criminal cases, apply civil penalties where tax agents are found to have been dishonest, or suspend access to certain online services for tax agents
• HMRC’s Agent Compliance Team regularly holds constructive conversations with agents where there are potential concerns about their practices

We expect all agents who interact with HMRC to keep to our standards, regardless of whether they are a member of a professional body, or which professional body they belong to.

7. Legal remedies for brand protection

If the first 3 referral routes are unsuccessful, HMRC will escalate the infringement to our Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services for further action.

While we may disagree with some HMRC-related content posted online, such content doesn’t usually infringe the law. Nor is it against the law to make assertions about the quality of HMRC’s service unless it deliberately misrepresents HMRC’s service as a means to obtain business from consumers.

An issue of real concern and potential action is when third party websites use HMRC’s logo and brand, which may result in customers believing they are interacting with HMRC or that HMRC, in some way, approves the site and services on offer.

Someone can decide to use a website service, but in doing so they must be fully aware of who they are dealing with, as well as understanding and agreeing to any fees along with other terms and conditions.