With many scam emails, letters, calls and texts being sent is is hard to know what is actually genuine.
HMRC has now come up with a list of recent letters that it may send and how to spot if they are a scam.
Claiming a repayment for Self Assessment:
You may get a letter from HMRC asking you to contact them about your repayment claim.
They may ask you to send more information to verify your claim.
You must respond to the letter so they can make any repayments owed to you as soon as possible.
You can call the Self Assessment: general enquiries helpline if you need further support or you’re not sure if the letter is genuine.
Letter VPCF1 — decision to cancel your VAT registration
As part of HMRC’s VAT registration security procedures, they check registrations to test their intention to trade is valid.
If they believe you are not eligible to be registered for VAT, you may receive a letter advising of intention to deregister you.
If you send information to show you’re eligible for registration within 30 days, you will stay registered. This means you will be able to manage your VAT records with HMRC.
HMRC will let you know what information and documents to provide. If this is not sent within 30 days HMRC will deregister the business from VAT.
National Insurance category letter M — feedback about our Generic Notification Service
From 1 February 2023 to 28 February 2023 HMRC may contact you by letter.
HMRC may invite you to give feedback on the effectiveness of the Generic Notification Service (GNS) messages for the National Insurance categories of your employees.
The letter will be from WMBC Customer Insight Team and will ask you to take part in a 30 minute telephone feedback session.
Taking part is voluntary and all information you give will be:
- confidential
- collected anonymously
- used only for information purposes to help HMRC improve the services it offers
Refund of Income Tax from changes to your Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant
From 11 April 2022 to 31 January 2023 HMRC may contact you by letter.
HMRC may write to you if you claimed one or more of the first, second or third SEISS grants and later repaid some, or all, of the grant.
You may be entitled to a refund of Income Tax if you reported the original SEISS grant amount on your 2020 to 2021 tax return, and later made a repayment which reduced the amount of Income Tax you needed to pay.
To receive the refund, you’ll need to update your 2020 to 2021 tax return by 31 January 2023. You can do this on GOV.UK.
If you’re not sure whether the letter is genuine or you want further information, you can contact the Self Assessment helpline on 0300 200 3310.
Other letters you should check
You can also to check letters listed in HMRC contact that uses more than one communication method.