Recommendation 23

Over a six–month period in September 2022, a large number of VAT– registered overseas businesses changed their registered address to one residential property in Cardiff. The resident received more than 11,000 letters from HMRC and debt collection agencies regarding unpaid VAT.68 The previous Public Accounts Committee raised this issue on several occasions in the past but the taxpayer continued to receive letters, including demands for payments.69 This Committee is aware of letters sent to the resident’s address as recently as October 2024 with demands from HMRC for unpaid VAT and import duties. We raised this with HMRC, and it told us that it had previously put overrides in place to prevent automated correspondence going to the address, but the most recent letters involved manual processes within HMRC. HMRC told us that it will seek to educate its officials to not issue letters to the address, and it is investigating each time a letter is sent to the address.70