EM6401 - Contract Settlements: Acceptance: Check of Letter of Offer

The guidance about contract settlements at EM6000+ only relates to direct tax. You must never include VAT or VAT penalties in a contract settlement.

When the letter of offer is returned you should check that

• any alterations made are acceptable by reference to the criteria in EM6310 and have been initialled by the signatory
• there are no blank spaces (for example, you cannot accept an offer 'to pay within ....... days')
• the offer has been signed by the person (or all the persons) for whom it was intended
• there was no covering letter or other suggestion which could be thought to modify the terms of the offer in any way (for example, a request for more time to pay)
• the offer if made by a partnership (including husbands and wives) has been signed by each partner
• the offer was signed within the previous six months EM6327.