SIOG10610 - Procedural matters: payments on account: handling payments on account

Team Leaders must ensure that procedures are in place within the office to control the receipt of payments on account. Investigators must be aware of the procedures and ensure that they are followed whenever they obtain a payment on account. Payments received by post should be identified and dealt with as a matter of priority. The aim should be to forward payments on the day of receipt.

Investigators will pass the cheque to the Support Group on the day of receipt. The support staff will:

• send the cheque to Exela Technologies, with a payslip quoting the SAFE (Strategic Accounting Framework Environment) customer reference. Helpcards are available on the DMB Guidance Gateway
• email the DMB SAFE Team to set the ‘clearing lock’ so that the payments are not used against any other charge
• issue the appropriate acknowledgement to the taxpayer and/or agent
• update the caseflow record with details of the payment on account.

EM6407 gives further information about SAFE procedures and payments on account. It should be noted that the ‘clearing lock’ will need to be set in each case for SI - it is therefore important that support staff email Accounts Office on the day the cheque is sent.

Locked payments must be unlocked before 2pm on the day the settlement charge is raised. You should telephone the SAFE Team and ask them to release the ‘clearing lock’ on payments to be used against the charge.

Helpcards which give guidance on sending cheque payments for processing are available on the DMB Guidance Gateway.