COP 26 Responsibilities (Info)

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Throughout a tax credits claim both HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the claimant must meet a set of responsibilities to reduce the chance of overpayments. These responsibilities are set out in Code Of Practice 26 – What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit (COP26) and are included in Responsibilities Of HMRC And The Claimant

The decision on whether or not an overpayment is recoverable depends on whether HMRC and the claimant have met their individual responsibilities

This guidance will help you to decide whether a disputed overpayment should be

• Remitted. Because HMRC has failed to meet one or more of its responsibilities and the claimant has met all their responsibilities
   
• Partially remitted. Because HMRC has contributed to the overpayment by failing to meet one or more of its responsibilities or because the claimant reported an HMRC error more than 30 days after it occurred

For example: On 10/05/2008 the claimant reports that a child left the household on 25/04/2008, but we do not process the change until 01/07/2008. The claimant disputes the resulting overpayment and we remit the amount of the overpayment from 09/06/2008, the day after our 30 day limit for processing the change to 01/07/2008. The overpayment from 25/04/2008 to 08/06/2008 remains recoverable

Note: The requirement for claimants to tell us within 30 days about a mistake we have made on their award notice or with their payments will apply to all overpayments occurring from 06/04/2008. If you are dealing with an overpayment that arose in a tax year before 2008-2009, the claimant must still tell us about our mistake promptly (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

• Recovered. Because HMRC has met all of its responsibilities

This guidance also tells you what to do if the claimant says that exceptional circumstances have prevented them from meeting their responsibilities or where the claimant has met their responsibilities, delayed them from telling us about a change or mistake as soon as they would otherwise have done