Bogus ‘HMRC’ emails offering tax refunds have been going round for some while.
More recently, telephone scams have started up. As one of my clients has recently received one of these calls, which was very unpleasant even though they saw through it, I thought I would alert others to this.
Clients are always welcome to forward on to me any suspect emails about tax. A phone call, especially one calculated to be alarming, is harder to deal with in the moment. There is always the option to end the call saying that you would like to speak to your adviser, or just put the phone down without giving a reason. Any scam relating to tax will always hinge on tax owed – either an overdue payment, or a repayment owed by HMRC. Your tax position can quickly be checked by me or by clients with online access to Government Gateway, which usually removes any doubt as to whether a call is genuine.
Meanwhile, the usual precautions over giving any details, especially bank details, over phone or email apply if you are unsure where these are going.
HMRC publishes details of typical scams here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phishing-and-bogus-emails-hm-revenue-and-customs-examples/phishing-emails-and-bogus-contact-hm-revenue-and-customs-examples