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Enquiries: Information: Why does HMRC carry out enquiries?
Enquiries are carried out after the end of the year and are part of the department’s compliance strategy. We want claimants to get the right amount of tax credits, and where we think there is a risk that they haven’t, we take compliance action to check.
Where we are only concerned about aspects of an award because we have specific information or data that suggests that the particular aspect of the award is incorrect the most cost effective way of challenging this is through a discrepancy enquiry. CCM17000 contains the guidance on which cases can be worked as discrepancy enquiry and how they carry out the enquiry.
Other cases require a full review of the award and call for the information and evidence to be gathered before you can decide whether or not the award is correct. Chapter 16 describes how to work this type of enquiry.