NIM12207 - NICs Personal Liability Notices: who conducts PLN enquiries?

Section 121C of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (SSAA 1992)

Responsibility for the issue of PLN rests with the NIC Personal Liability Notice Team within Individuals Small Business Compliance (ISBC). This is a specialist team which carries out all PLN enquiries and investigates the possibility of making individual officers personally liable for unpaid company National Insurance contributions (NICs) using section 121C of the SSBCA 1992.

The concentration of this work within a small specialised team is consistent with assurances given by the government during debates on the introduction of this legislation, where in order to address concerns raised over the application of the legislation and its ability to ‘lift the veil of limited liability’ from directors, it was stated:

“A small, specialised, highly trained body of staff will fully investigate the facts … we will be taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the initial decision to issue a liability notice under this clause will be a high-quality decision taken in the knowledge of all relevant facts.”

The Personal Liability Notice Team follow clear and robust internal guidelines and procedures to ensure that the legislation is applied fairly, consistently and appropriately only to those cases where HMRC believes there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate ‘on the balance of probabilities’ that the failure to pay was attributable to fraud or more serious levels of neglect.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)