IHTM38088 - Tracing the taxpayer: liaison with other parts of HMRC

The Accounts Office in Shipley (AOS) has a specialist team that has considerable experience in tracing missing taxpayers and reference to them should be considered when all Debt Management & Banking resources have failed to locate the taxpayer.

The AOS Tracing Unit was set up in 1997 to deal with correspondence returned by the Post Office as RLS (Returned Letter Service). AOS sends out thousands of letters, statements, payment reminders and tax returns each month. In a number of cases the Post Office cannot deliver the item because the address is incorrect, incomplete or the item has been refused.

The Tracing Unit’s job is to make sure that the correct address for that taxpayer is put on to the computer records as quickly and accurately as possible. In most cases the taxpayer has simply forgotten to tell HMRC of a forwarding address. However a minority do not want to be found and are avoiding paying their tax. The Tracing Unit checks all their computer systems and contacts a number of sources to find an address. Their contacts include:

• the local tax office;
• the Contributions Agency;
• the council and local authorities;
• the gas, electric and water companies;
• the DVLA;
• the Royal Mail re-direction centre;
• the present occupier; and
• banks and building societies.

They also use some software packages to trace phone numbers (similar to BT directory enquiries) and to check postcodes and addresses.