COM92021 - Payments: tracing a payment: tracing a payment in a responsible office (Action Guide)

To trace a payment in a responsible office, consider steps 1 - 7 below.

Please note that: You must give priority to missing/alleged payment cases at all stages to avoid complaints and possible claims for compensation.

The guide is presented as follows.


Action
 Steps
Initial action to trace a payment
 Steps 1 - 6
Missing / alleged payment cannot be traced
 Step 7

Initial action to trace a payment

1. Where you have received payment details, use Receipts Historical Viewer (RHV) to search for payments made between 23 September 2002 and 10 June 2022. For payments made before 23 September 2002, use function TPYT (Trace Payment) in COTAX. For payments made after 10 June 2022, use ETMP. If you do not hold this information, go to step 2.

2. Use function VPPD (View Payment and Posting Details) to check whether the payment has been allocated to a different Accounting Period (AP), Suspense Record or the Group Payment Record or reallocated to another liability.

3. Check ITSA, SAFE and ETMP to see if the payment has been allocated to another head of duty, for example PAYE.

4. If you do not have full details of the payment, ask the company or agent to tell you the:

  • total amount of the payment
  • date of payment
  • type of payment (for example, debit card)
  • office or address to which the payment was sent

In addition, if payment was by cheque the:

  • date that the cheque cleared
  • cheque details (cheque number, bank sort code and bank account number

5. Using the payment details above, use RHV to search for payments made between 23 September 2002 and 10 June 2022. For payments made before 23 September 2002, use function TPYT (Trace Payment) in COTAX. For payments made after 10 June 2022, use ETMP.

6. Once you identify how the payment has been allocated:

  • make any necessary reallocation. For more information see COM120000 onwards
  • write a letter of explanation to the company or agent

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Missing/alleged payment cannot be traced

7. If you cannot trace the payment using function TPYT, refer the case to the HMRC Payments Operations.