DMBM655510 - Enforcement action: distraint: preparing for distraint calls: what you need to take with you on a distraint call

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When you make distraint calls you will need

• your HMRC ID card
• a distraint folder (a clipboard with pockets, your ‘distraint kit’, including form C204E)
• the papers for each case
• certificate of debt where you believe an employer may dispute the amount payable
• a mobile telephone (programmed with the contact number for the Enforcement Team, Shipley for urgent matters only)
• blank forms C204
• blank forms C204a
• 2 x blank VAT 100 returns
• blank DNIPs
• blank forms VAT 138a (and envelopes)
• quantification forms
• a supply of blank forms P101D
• a photocopy of Section 6 and 7 of CRCA 2005
• a photocopy of The Distraint by Collectors (Fees, Costs and Charges) Regulations 1994 (amended 1995) SI 1994/236 (in case your authority to charge costs is challenged, DMBM655830)
• a photocopy of SI 1997/1431(Schedule 2-Scale of Costs) in case your authority to charge costs is challenged, DMBM655830)
• photocopies of TMA70/S61, S121A SSAA1992 and FA1997 Section 51 in case your authority to distrain is challenged.

We recommend you also have with you a camera for taking still photographs.

For interest-bearing charges, you may wish to take an interest computation to the date of the distraint call and a note of the daily accrual rate.