EM1939 - Working the enquiry: general payments on account: how to process a payment on account

This page explains what to do if a customer makes a payment.

It also explains what you do when

  • locking payments in SAFE
  • settling your enquiry
  • payments on account exceed the settlement amount

Payments

The Intelligent Payment Process (IPP) form (link Home - Intelligent Payment Processing (IPP) (hmrc.gov.uk)) has been introduced to simplify payment requests to Government Banking and Payments. The aim of the change is to standardise payment requests and provide increased auditing ability to be able to monitor and continually improve the service provided.

All staff in CCG that deal with repayments, reallocations or missing payments should familiarise themselves with the IPP form and their local authorisation process.

If you receive an unexpected payment on account, or a request for a SAFE reference to make a payment, check whether a disclaimer letter is needed, see EM1941.

Payments in cash

Note: It is HMRC policy not to accept payment in cash. If a customer offers to make a payment on account in cash, you must ask them to pay by an alternative method. If they cannot, then you must advise them to take their payment to a branch of their own bank or building society, but they will need a payslip from us, showing their SAFE customer reference number.

Locking payments in SAFE

Where payments on account are made in advance of the charge and are unallocated, SAFE will automatically allocate them to the next charge becoming due.

To prevent payments being incorrectly allocated, you must make sure that all payments on account held in SAFE are locked. As soon as you are aware that a payment has been made, either directly to you or DMB, you must

  • complete the stencil ‘SAFE 3 (POA) locking stencil’, which is available in SEES, and
  • send the stencil by eform to the Corporate Treasure MCU Reallocations.

When completing the SAFE stencil, you must include your compiance identifier in the caseworker's details section of the stencil. The format of this will depend on your business unit. If you work in

  • ISBC, this is Directorate/customer group/PID of manager/PID of caseworker
  • LB, this is LB/Tax Stream/PID of CCM/PID of TS.
  • For FIS cases you must include your identifier in the following format: FIS/Region/Location/PID.
  • For PT International your identifier is in the following format: SPT/PTI/EC/Caseflow ref/PID for example, SPT/PTI/EC/CFS-123456/765.
  • For WMBC your identifier is in the following format: SPT/ WMBC /Site name/UTR/PID of Site SO Manager, for example, SPT/ WMBC /Birmingham/123456789/1234567.

On receipt of a completed stencil Corporate Treasury MCU, who are part of Corporate Finance will lock the payment. If the stencil is incomplete, the stencil will be returned to you.

Corporate Treasury MCU will not deal with any telephone requests to set the clearing lock.

Settling your enquiry

Where the taxpayer has made a payment on account

  • For cases settled by contract, see EM6340 and EM6403. Additionally if the settlement involves an instalment offer, see EM6404.
  • For cases settled by assessment/amendment, for example partial closure notices or final closure notices, see EM3965. For discovery assessments, see EM3250.

Payments on account exceed the settlement amount

Where, exceptionally, the payments on account exceed the amount of the settlement, you should find out whether there are any collectible debts the overpayment can be set against.

If there are none, you should use The Intelligent Payment Process (IPP) form (link Home - Intelligent Payment Processing (IPP) (hmrc.gov.uk)) to repay the excess. The IPP form allows authorisers to approve the Repayment forms, and where necessary, return the forms for amending. Each business area has its own business rules that determine whether a repayment needs to be authorised and at what monetary level. Where you are unsure what rules apply to your business area, speak to your manager.