DMBM618370 - Pre-enforcement: coding out: Self Assessment (SA) and Tax Credit (TC) overpayments: what to do if you identify a debt suitable for coding out

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Coding out debts is at HMRC's discretion rather than at the customer’s request. It should not be routinely available to customers as an alternative to paying in full or agreeing to time to pay arrangement.

After considering other enforcement action first (for example, DCA), if you identify a SA or TC case that you still feel is suitable for coding out, you can move the debt into the coding out process. In particular, look out for 2010-11 balancing payments that are suitable, where older work items are held in OU 337000 awaiting a coding out campaign.

You should:

• ensure that signal or conditions are not set that would prevent the issue of the appropriate IDMS 99
• select the appropriate work items on IDMS TIS and for both SA and TC cases
• transfer Ownership to 0UMU333700
• use IDMS Record Actions to select Proposed Next action ‘ Consider Codeout’ (the work item will be picked up by IDMS campaigns and moved to the next coding out campaign strategy)
• set Next action date as the following working day
• record an appropriate Action History note.

Coding out should only be agreed with the customer when you exhausted all other avenues of payment. If the customer requests ‘coding out’, you should always try and agree a payment in full or an acceptable time to pay arrangement.