Research and analysis

HMRC debtor behaviour

Research to understand the behaviours of customers indebted to HMRC.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 19 February 2016

Documents

HMRC Debtor Behaviour

Ref: HMRC Research Report 402

PDF, 760 KB, 54 pages

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Details

The main aim of this research was to understand the behaviour and decision-making processes of HMRC customers who are, or have recently been, in debt to HMRC, in order to identify how to encourage them to pay the sums owed when they are due.

Additional aims were to explore:

• how customers become indebted to HMRC
• how customers in debt to HMRC prioritise which debtors to repay
• the extent to which credit ratings figure in taxpayer decisions about debts in general (whether to repay and how to prioritise these and what this means for decisions about tax debt specifically)

The report contains findings from 48 qualitative interviews conducted with Self Assessment and VAT customers.

Published 19 February 2016