Taxman Brings in the Heavies

Newsletter issue - October 2010.

The Taxman has hired four debt collection firms to help collect an additional £140 million of unpaid taxes each year. Those firms are:

• Commercial Collection Services Ltd;
• Credit Solutions Ltd;
• Fairfax Solicitors Ltd; and
• iQor Recovery Services Ltd.

They will all be expected to operate under industry and Tax Office standards.

If you owe tax, even just a few hundred pounds, you may well find a bailiff from one of those commercial firms on your doorstep. Before this happens you should receive a warning letter from the Collector of Taxes, but we know those letters can be out of date, contain incorrect figures or sometimes never arrive.

We are aware of some problems with corporation tax demands such as:

• Letters asking for tax to be paid but with no details of how the debt arose, or what period it is for;
• Demands sent where no corporation tax is due;
• Estimated tax bills issued and chased when in fact no tax is due.

If you receive a letter regarding an unpaid tax debt do not ignore it, even if the facts are incorrect and you don't owe the tax stated. If the Taxman's information is not corrected promptly you can expect to see the bailiffs and they can be hard people to deal with.