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

Establishment status for VAT

You may receive a letter from us if we think you are a non-established taxable person (NETP) for VAT.

If you are non-established for VAT, you do not need to do anything. If you think you are UK established, you need to send us information to prove this. The letter will outline the impacts of being treated as a NETP.

You must send the information within 30 days. The letter will tell you what to send to us.

Individuals and the mid-sized businesses they are associated with

Walnut are carrying out research on behalf of HMRC to understand the tax attitude and behaviour links between individuals and the mid-sized businesses they are associated with.

You may receive a letter inviting you to take part in this research. This will be followed by a phone call to conduct an interview.

Taking part is voluntary but if you do so, your answers will be:

• confidential
• used for research purposes only

If you need further information, contact details for Walnut and HMRC will be on the letter.

The letter will not ask you for any financial information.

Letter CA2490 — Home Responsibilities Protection eligibility

HMRC will send you a letter if we think you may have missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP).

We want to help you make sure you receive the right amount of State Pension, so we’re asking you to check if you were eligible for HRP between 1978 and 2010. You may have been eligible if you received Child Benefit for a child under 16.

The letter will tell you how you can check if you’re eligible to claim missing Home Responsibilities Protection and how to make a claim.

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 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.

Self Assessment — claiming a repayment

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.

Other letters you should check

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