EM3970 - Concluding the Enquiry: Helping DMB to deal with debts

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

During your enquiry you must consider all of the following and take the appropriate action.

  • If you have issued an estimated assessment or determination and there are likely to be collection difficulties, you must make DMB aware of these issues immediately and where possible provide information on the customers assets to assist enforcement action. You can provide this information either on form MS134, which is available in SEEs, or by e-mail to the appropriate mailbox, using the appropriate operational guidance for your business area.
  • If you consider that it is inappropriate for DMB to take enforcement action at any stage during an enquiry, for example when you are discussing a settlement or are seeking additional information to determine the amount of the liability, you should stand over any relevant debt whilst these issues are being finalised.
  • If you are enquiring into grouped or associated businesses or companies, this may create debts for more than one of them. If you consider that enforcement action for assessments issued during your enquiry into any of these businesses might be inappropriate, you should informally stand over these debts until they can be finalised.
  • If you become aware that insolvency is likely and that assessments may need to be issued to protect HMRC’s position, you must contact your local insovency tea using the Insolvency Profession - PowerApps so that when it is appropriate the case can be fast tracked to Enforcement & Insolvency Service (EIS).

To enable DMB staff to contact the right person, make sure that your contact details are in the notes space on appropriate systems such as COTAX, SA and ECS using the standard format compliance identifier, see EM6407.

See the guidance on means at EM5213 before you consider whether to issue assessments when you have doubts about the customers ability to pay.

Contract Settlements

When you are considering a contract settlement, you must also make sure that you have requested payments on account as soon as you have established the potential tax liability. This will give you an opportunity to discuss the customers means and settlement options at an early stage in the check. When requesting payments on account, make sure you give the customers SAFE customer reference number. This will help DMB allocate the payments correctly. You can obtain the customer reference number from the SAFE nominee or, if you work in Local Compliance, the Centralised SAFE Team.

EM6407 tells you how to contact the Centralised SAFE Team.

Once a letter of acceptance has been issued you must also make sure that you discharge any assessments for any amounts that have been included in the settlement.