Had a call from a client on Friday to say that he had received a phone call from an HMRC employee who was outside his premises and wanted to speak to him regarding a late payment of a monthly CIS return, the client does owe this for the 5th May return but was unable to pay it due to not receiving the promised payment from a contractor (no excuse he knows he must still pay HMRC and is not trying to avoid it) this was not a debt collection agency but was definitely from HMRC and said he had been sent to collect the debt and that an additional charge of £75 would be added to the bill for the cost of him having to come out, my client said he would contact HMRC on Monday and try and arrange to pay it, he was told it was too late to arrange a payment plan but for him to pay whatever he could for now and he would return in another 2 weeks which will be another £75 charge.
Has anyone heard of these charges for visits? I know HMRC charge interest on late payments but never known them to charge £75 for a visit.
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Doug
These are only my opinions of how I see things and therefore should not be taken as advice
Hi Doug
One of my clients used to have an HMRC guy turn up week after week, demanding they pay their bill (even when they had and indeed even when they were in credit!), plus he made a general nuisance of himself. Often counted staff vy pointedly even though the number never changed and all were reported. Very odd. He never charged, but I'm going back a while now and he hasn't been seen for a good while.
Has your client been issued with an enforcement notice? That carries a £75fee.
Has he been ignoring earlier correspondence or not phoned them when he encountered problems? I would encourage him to phone 1st thing tomorrow and not delay further.
I've not had the experience of the fee, although I've seen the ultra prompt letters and follow on letters when HMRC think there is a debt and even a phon call doesn't necessarily stop them. So get him to get a case reference and keep a note of the call date, time, name, reference and the call handlers shoe size!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Are you sure it's as recent as 5th May? HMRC officers can charge if they visit the premises to collect a debt, but they've usually exhausted other avenues first, which can take months.
The first stage is usually a letter or phone call from HMRC debt management or passed onto a debt collection agency specifically licensed to work on behalf of HMRC.
Re the visits. £75 for the first visit but they should have issued your client with a notice of enforcement. £235 for the second visit and can issue with a goods control order. £110 on removal of goods. These are standard fees for other bailiffs as well.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
No previous correspondence from HMRC regarding the debt according to the client (which does not mean that this is the case though as I am sure you both know) and no enforcement notice given as far as I know.
Thanks for the link Joanne and I have told him to phone first thing today.
John, checked back through his records as I do his CIS returns and the debt actually relates to the April 5th return but even so still fairly recent, however this did get me thinking that he incorporated earlier in the year and I am wondering if he forgot to change the reference number over on the account details he uses to pay the CIS which would mean that if this was the case then even though the payments are being paid from the Ltd account they would be allocated to his sole trader business and subsequently it would show he has not made any payments and would owe going back to 5th Feb, I will need to check with him to find out what reference is on the payments and take it from there
Thanks for the help
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Doug
These are only my opinions of how I see things and therefore should not be taken as advice
Sound slike the hard was trying to get traction and speaking through his you know what.if correct, your client can report him, but it probably won't do him any good as some of them are a law to themselves, as per the one who I mentioned above.
Worth checking what address HMRC have for both him as a ST and a Ltd, but your comment about the references sounds a likely scenario.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
