Enter Your E-mail

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced that it is now implementing its new policy of scanning the post it receives from taxpayers and agents in respect of tax enquiries. When dealing with enquiries under this new postal regime, HMRC should now be asking for future correspondence to be sent to a central postal address.

This follows on from the policy of removing enquiry work from local offices - taxpayers' affairs are now commonly dealt with by offices in distant regions, or by more than one office depending on the nature of work involved. HMRC will now scan documents it receives, so that they can be accessed electronically, from any tax office.

It is hoped that this should allow correspondence to be dealt with more efficiently, with less opportunity for post to go astray. Under the new system, items should now be accessible within 36 hours.

However, it is now HMRC's stated policy to (securely!) DESTROY original items of post which have been scanned, within 40 days of receipt, except for certain documents such as:

• P60s - certificates of pay received and tax deducted
• Birth certificates, death and marriage certificates
• Passports

Taxpayers or agents who want any other original documentation to be returned must clearly say so, in their correspondence. Of course this only applies to documents which will be scanned - i.e., correspondence relating to enquiry work or 'compliance checks', as above.

The first phase of this new policy is now under way, and it applies to enquiries into the tax affairs of non-business 'customers' and employers; the plan is to continue the 'roll-out' across the majority of compliance checks throughout 2011/12.

As part of our involvement under the Working Together Initiative, we have stressed to HMRC how important it is that they make taxpayers aware of this new policy - particularly so that taxpayers without agents (and who will therefore deal directly with HMRC) - will understand that some documents will not normally be kept or returned.

Update

HMRC has now confirmed which original documents it will always return to the taxpayer/agent - see Items of Post HMRC WON'T Destroy After Scanning