MPs order tax chiefs to stop posting out 'horrifying threats'

HM Revenue chiefs were yesterday ordered by MPs to stop sending threatening letters to people who owed them money, warning that cars and televisions would be seized and sold off for a pittance.

In a scathing rebuke, tax bosses were told by the Commons' Treasury committee that the 'widely used' practice of mailing out threats to auction off people's property was 'completely inappropriate'.

Labour MP George Mudie, deputy chairman of the committee, even suggested that HM Revenue and Customs had been breaking the law by sending out the 'horrifying' letters.

In a damning report this weekend on HMRC's performance, the Treasury committee said: 'These letters appear to have been widely used without sufficient thought to whom they were sent to, even being sent to people who did not actually owe money.

'Such language is appropriate only where there is strong evidence of persistent and deliberate non-payment.'

Mr Mudie, who led the inquiry,  praised The Mail on Sunday for exposing the HMRC tactics.

He said: 'This was one of the most disturbing things uncovered in our inquiry. They were sending these out to taxpayers, seemingly on a random basis, and telling them to pay up within weeks.

'There was no question of saying  we would like to discuss this with you, or you can phone this number, and you have a right of appeal.

'It was just: pay up this money – and it was often a four-figure number – within weeks or we will seize your goods.

'Imagine the effect on someone elderly and vulnerable living on their own if they got a letter like that.'

The Leeds MP also warned that unless the letters were being sent to people who had repeatedly and deliberately refused to pay up, they were illegal.

He also voiced his anger that Treasury Minister David Gauke, who oversees HMRC, appeared to condone the practice.

Mr Mudie said: 'The Minister came before us and I was disappointed because he took the line that they owed money and they had to get it.

'He seemed to think it was acceptable but the committee didn't.'

Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday exposed how HMRC was targeting thousands of people among Britain's ten million self-assessment taxpayers who had failed to respond to tax demands.

In a provocative twin-track tactic, tax chiefs set out to humiliate people into paying up by threatening to seize their possessions and auction them off publicly for a fraction of their real value, and warning them that if they refused the Government would run out of money to treat the sick and educate the nation's children.

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