Important message from HMRC - New mailbox to use when contacting HMRC with notices under section 100

HMRC has asked ICAEW to pass the following message onto our insolvency practitioners.

Changes introduced under Part 6 of the Insolvency (England & Wales) Rules 2016 in relation to creditors' voluntary liquidations have led to challenges for HMRC in being able to formally engage in the deemed consent or virtual meeting processes under section 100 of the Insolvency Act 1986. More specifically, rule 6.14(3) allows for the decision date, for the decision of the creditors on the nomination of a liquidator, to be as little as three business days after the notice is delivered. Feedback from HMRC colleagues dealing with ongoing enquiries has found that although the notification may be received into the department, very often they fail to reach the HMRC officers in time for them to actively engage, and HMRC are unable to trace if and where the notification has been made.

Furthermore, changes to the way in which notices are now advertised in the Gazette means that HMRC is no longer able to monitor companies entering into CVL in advance and so review for the purposes of determining if HMRC should engage in the process, in the same way as the department was able to in relation to meetings called under section 98 Insolvency Act 1986, prior to the Insolvency (England & Wales) Rules 2016 being introduced.

In order to remedy this, HMRC would like to propose that all insolvency practitioners (IPs) provide the initial pre-appointment notifications for the deemed consent or virtual meeting procedures for all CVLs to a designated HMRC mailbox that will be set up and provided for IPs specifically in relation to CVL notifications only. This would then provide more clarity for IPs in terms of where in HMRC to forward all notifications and help ensure that HMRC can actively engage in the process when deemed appropriate.

It would be very much appreciated if the subject line of the email could include the company name, CRN, and the decision date.

Please note that this mailbox is only for the initial pre-appointment notifications under the deemed consent or virtual meeting procedures.

HMRC will monitor use of the mailbox to ensure it is only used for its intended purpose, and where issues arise, will bring them to ICAEW's attention. Similarly, if IPs experience any issues with the mailbox, please let ICAEW know and they will pass the details onto HMRC