Guidance

Information notices — CC/FS2

Updated 8 December 2025

An information notice is a legal document that requires a person to provide information and produce documents to HMRC. We can give an information notice to a person when we need information or documents to:

• check their tax position
• collect a tax debt

We can ask for any information or documents in an information notice if we believe they’re relevant and that it’s reasonable to ask for them. If the person doesn’t give us what we’ve asked for in an information notice, we may charge them penalties.

This factsheet is one of a series. For the full list, go to GOV.UK and search ‘HMRC compliance checks factsheets’.

If you need extra support

If you have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with us, please tell the officer who contacted you. They’ll help you in whatever way they can. For more information about this, go to GOV.UK and search ‘get help from HMRC if you need extra support’.

You can also ask someone else to deal with us on your behalf. For example, a professional adviser, friend or relative. However, we may still need to talk or write to you directly about some things. If we need to write to you, we’ll send a copy to the person you’ve asked us to deal with. If we need to talk to you, they can be with you when we do, if you prefer.

More information online about compliance checks

You can get more information and help online, including:

• links to our video series
• step-by-step guides to our compliance checks

Go to tax compliance support.

When we use an information notice

If we’re checking your tax position or trying to collect a tax debt, we’ll normally ask you to help by giving us information and documents that we need. If you don’t do this, we may give you an information notice.

In some circumstances, we may need to:

• give you an information notice without asking you for the information or documents first
• ask the independent tribunal that deals with tax to approve the issue of an information notice

What the information notice will tell you

The information notice will tell you:

• what information, documents or both, we need
• how and when to give us what we need
• what to do if you disagree with the notice
• if it’s been approved by the independent tribunal that deals with tax

If you need more time to give us what the notice asks for, contact the officer who gave you the notice.

What we can’t ask for in an information notice

We can’t ask you to provide information or produce documents:

• that you don’t have and you can’t get (or get copies of) from whoever has them
• that relate to the tax position of a person who died more than 4 years before we issue the notice
• that have been created as part of the preparation for a tax appeal
• that are only about a person’s physical, mental, spiritual or personal welfare
• that are privileged communications between lawyers and clients, and are about getting or giving legal advice
• if you’re an auditor, tax adviser or journalist and the information or documents have been created as part of your job
• if you’re mentioned in journalistic material and the information or documents have been created by a journalist as part of their job

The rules about information and documents we can’t ask for can be complicated. If you think we’ve asked for something that we shouldn’t have, contact the officer who gave you the information notice.

If you disagree with an information notice

If you disagree with the information notice, it will tell you what you can appeal against and how to appeal.

You can’t appeal if the notice is only asking for statutory records that relate to the:

• supply of goods or services
• importation of goods from a place outside the UK in the course of carrying on a business

Statutory records are the records that tax laws say a person must keep.

You also can’t appeal if the notice has been approved by the independent tribunal. That’s because a judge has already decided that what we’ve asked for is appropriate.

Asking another person for information about you

If you can’t or don’t give us the information or documents we need, we may need to ask another person for them. We’ll normally ask you for permission before we contact another person. We’ll only share the necessary details about you to get what we need.

You can choose not to give permission, but you must tell us why. If you don’t give permission and we still need the information or documents, we may ask the tribunal to approve the issue of an information notice.

Sometimes we may need to issue an information notice to another person without asking you for the information or documents first. We’ll normally ask the tribunal for approval to do this.

We don’t need permission from you or approval from the tribunal if we need to ask another person for statutory records that relate to:

• the supply of goods or services
• the importation of goods from a place outside the UK in the course of carrying on a business

If you don’t comply with an information notice

If you don’t comply with the information notice by giving us everything the notice asks for by the deadline we’ve given you, we may charge you a £300 penalty.

If you still haven’t complied with the notice by the time we’ve issued the £300 penalty, we can charge you daily penalties. Those penalties are up to £60 a day for each day that you don’t comply.

After that, we can charge you a penalty based on the amount of tax we believe you owe us. This type of penalty must be authorised by the independent tribunal that deals with tax.

When we won’t charge you a penalty for not complying

We won’t charge you a penalty if you have a reasonable excuse for not complying with the information notice. Instead, we’ll ask you to give us the information, documents (or replacement documents) or both by an agreed date.

A reasonable excuse is something that stopped you from meeting a tax obligation on time, which you took reasonable care to meet. It might be because of circumstances outside your control or a combination of events. Once the reasonable excuse has ended, you must put things right without any unnecessary delay.

Whether you have a reasonable excuse depends upon the circumstances in which the failure occurred and your particular circumstances and abilities. This may mean that what is a reasonable excuse for one person may not be a reasonable excuse for someone else.

Examples of reasonable excuse may include when:

• you’ve been seriously ill
• someone close to you has died
• you’ve lost the documents in a fire or flood

Penalties for giving inaccurate information or documents

If you carelessly or deliberately provide inaccurate information or produce a document containing an inaccuracy, we may charge you a penalty. This could be up to £3,000 for each inaccuracy.

We won’t charge you a penalty if you tell us about the inaccuracy at the time you give us the information or produce the document. If you later find something you’ve given us contains an inaccuracy, you must tell us straightaway.

Concealing, destroying or disposing of documents

We may charge you a penalty if you or another person acting on your behalf conceals, destroys or disposes of any document that we:

• have asked for in an information notice
• told you that we intend to ask for in an information notice

It’s a criminal offence to conceal, destroy or dispose of any document that we:

• have asked for in an information notice that has been approved by the tribunal
• told you that we intend to ask for in an information notice that has been approved by the tribunal

We may carry out a criminal investigation if you or someone acting on your behalf commits this offence. If we do this, it means you could be prosecuted and taken to court.

If you give us information that you know to be untrue

We may carry out a criminal investigation if you:

• give us information that you know is untrue, whether verbally or in a document
• dishonestly misrepresent your liability to tax or claim payments you are not entitled to get

If we do this, it means you could be prosecuted and taken to court.

Additional information

Our privacy notice

Our privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from us when we ask for information or hold information about you. Go to GOV.UK and search ‘HMRC Privacy Notice’.

If you’re not happy with our service

If you’re not happy with our service tell the person or office you’ve been dealing with. They’ll try to put things right. If you’re still not happy, they’ll tell you how to make a formal complaint.