Dmbm600010 - pre-enforcement: linking direct and indirect taxes: background - hmrc internal manual

DMBM600010 - PRE-ENFORCEMENT: LINKING DIRECT AND INDIRECT TAXES: BACKGROUND The majority of this manual will be archived on 1 July 2024. If there is content within this manual you use

regularly, email [email protected] to let us know. BACKGROUND When HMRC was formed the Day 1 Handbook set out limited criteria such as Time to Pay to advise when you needed to

check for combined debts as well as some basic principles for handling combined debts at the pre-enforcement stage. This guidance was incorporated into DMBM800000. CHESTERFIELD TRIAL A ‘Debt

Linking’ review was conducted which concluded that joint action was only being taken on direct and indirect taxes for a small number of debts. The Review showed the potential for

significant improvement in performance by allowing Debt Management Units to search, link and pursue direct tax debts. Our current IT systems cannot automatically link debts for the same

customer across the different regimes. A project was conducted in Chesterfield using manually linked indirect and direct Tax Debts which were then worked together. The project aims were to

give: * efficiencies in the following areas (confirmed and supported by Management Information): > * a reduction in the duplication of work; letters or phone calls > that were 

previously handled by separate Direct and Indirect Offices >  >      * more debts will be linked and worked together; creating a saving > in court fees * progression towards a

single customer account * demonstrate the following to help with future decisions: > * the volume and value of successful debts linked  >      * the volume and value of successful 

joint actions  >      * the volume and value of money recovered  >      * the volume and value of small, clean Indirect debts (less than > £500) and small, linked (Direct and 

Indirect debts) debts that > could be centralised.  >      * work item reductions  >      * resources used (by grade and hours spend) OUTCOME Following this trial the small debt

unit was created as it was proved that concentrated efforts on these lower debts had successful results. For more information on this see DMBM600040 and DMBM600050. Next page Print this page