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Corporate report

Direct Recovery of Debts — Key Information for customers

This briefing explains how HMRC recovers tax debt by requiring banks and building societies to pay us directly from the customer’s accounts where they refuse to pay, subject to strict safeguards.

Updates to this page

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published:
5 August 2015
Last updated:
11 June 2026
Show all updates

  1. Minor changes to landing page and issue briefing text.

  2. Updates to 'Your rights and responsibilities' page

  3. Published new section: 'Your rights and responsibilities'.

  4. Updated due to HMRC re-starting the use of Direct Recovery of Debt (DRD) powers, including update to how vulnerable customers can access support.

  5. Added translation

Documents

Issue Briefing: Direct Recovery of Debts

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Your rights and responsibilities

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Details

The tax we collect from individuals and businesses is vital to fund public services.

The vast majority of people pay their taxes in full and on time. However, a small minority do not pay what they owe, and HMRC has a range of powers to deal with those cases.

Direct Recovery of Debts (DRD) allows HMRC to recover tax debts from people and businesses from their bank and building society accounts. It is used when an individual or business can afford to pay what they owe but are choosing not to.

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