Check if a letter you've received from HMRC is genuine

Claiming a repayment for Self Assessment

You may get a letter from HMRC asking you to contact us about your repayment claim.

We may ask you to send more information to verify your claim.

You must respond to the letter so we can make any repayments owed to you as soon as possible.

You can call the Self Assessment: general enquiries helpline if you need further support or you’re not sure if the letter is genuine.

Experiences of pension scheme administrators

From 12 September 2022 up to and including 2 December 2022, HMRC will work with research company IFF Research to carry out research with pension scheme administrators.

This research will look at the experiences of pension scheme administrators in providing information to HMRC to fulfil their pensions tax obligations.

You may receive a letter from HMRC and IFF Research inviting you to take part in the research online or by phone.

Taking part is voluntary and if you do so, your answers and any information given, will be:

• confidential and any information you give will be
• used for research purposes only

Letter OCA300 — repayment of student loan deductions

HMRC will contact you by letter to tell you there is a repayment of student loan deductions due.

We will include details of why the repayment is due and the employer you worked with at the time.

This letter will tell you about changes to the way we issue repayments as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation.

We will ask for personal information to allow us to make a faster repayment.

You can call the Taxes general enquiry helpline to confirm this request is genuine.

Letter VPCF1 — decision to cancel your VAT registration

As part of HMRC’s VAT registration security procedures, we check registrations to test their intention to trade is valid.

If we believe you are not eligible to be registered for VAT, you may receive a letter from us advising of our intention to deregister you.

If you send us information to show you’re eligible for registration within 30 days, you will stay registered. This means you will be able to manage your VAT records with HMRC.

We will let you know what information and documents to provide. If this is not sent within 30 days HMRC will deregister the business from VAT.

National Insurance category letter M — feedback about our Generic Notification Service

HMRC may invite you to give feedback on the effectiveness of our Generic Notification Service (GNS) messages for the National Insurance categories of your employees.

The letter will be from WMBC Customer Insight Team and will ask you to take part in a 30 minute telephone feedback session.

Taking part is voluntary and all information you give will be:

• confidential
• collected anonymously
• used only for information purposes to help HMRC improve the services it offers

Refund of Income Tax from changes to your Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant

HMRC may write to you if you claimed one or more of the first, second or third SEISS grants and later repaid some, or all, of the grant.

You may be entitled to a refund of Income Tax if you reported the original SEISS grant amount on your 2020 to 2021 tax return, and later made a repayment which reduced the amount of Income Tax you needed to pay.

To receive the refund, you’ll need to update your 2020 to 2021 tax return by 31 January 2023. You can do this on GOV.UK.

If you’re not sure whether the letter is genuine or you want further information, you can contact our Self Assessment helpline on 0300 200 3310.

Other letters you should check

You can also to check letters listed in HMRC contact that uses more than one communication method.