HMRC to withdraw agent copies of forms

HM Revenue & Customs have announced that, as part of the current cost cutting drive by government departments, they are going to stop issuing agents, such as ourselves, with copies of certain forms that are sent to clients.

The main casualty of this review will be Notices of Coding which will, from December 2010, no longer be copied to agents. There are other forms which HMRC will also stop sending copies of to agents. HMRC have ‘apologised’ for these decisions but feel that there will be ‘minimal impact for customers’. In view of the problems highlighted this week regarding the number of taxpayers with underpayments as a result of failings within the paye system we cannot agree that the impact will be ‘minimal’!

We would emphasise our general advice that clients forward copies of any correspondence received from HMRC to us to ensure that we are fully aware of what the taxman is up to.

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