Letter before court proceedings - APN 2014

[mdark]

Hi All,

I have been a follower on this great forum for a while now - but TBH I have been out touch with what's going on with HMRC and APN's. I feel like I need some advice please.

Today is 19th March 2020 and I was actually watching the Loan Charge Review at the Houses of Common - Politicians we giving stories of HMRC bullying and unfairness because of the loan charges - During the debate I heard the post come through the door... Brown Letter... HMRC of course!!! Arrgghh

This letter talks about a "Letter before claim - for an APN 2014. I have received many many threatening letters from HMRC but this one reads a bit different.

Has anyone else received these types of letters recently as I know they come in waves. Also has anyone been taken to court recently over APN's. Any advice would be most welcome.

I have tried searching the forum for similar topics - So please accept my apologies if I am posting the wrong place or if anyone has any relevant post's that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[regron]

Firstly yiu need professional advice, to understand the whole scenario of your situation.

In general, did you ignore all previous letters?
Yes, someone was taken to court for an APN, lost and not only had to pay it, but they whacked a nice 8% charge on top.

Don't ignore this, pick up the phone and get professional help, now.

[mdark]

Thank regon.

Much appreciated.

[webberg]

Potted history of APN and where you are and what you need to do.

When the APNs started appearing in 2015 much was made of their "illegal" nature and lots of noise was heard about court actions (JRs) and the like. Well those actions have all finished and have all lost.

What they achieved was to give HMRC a set of rules as to how a representation should be handled. That was December 2018.

Since then HMRC has been "getting around" to dealing with all those representations which were stalled waiting for the last case. Quite why it has taken from December 2018 to now to get all those out of the system nobody knows.

Now though that legal steps to prevent collection are over, the wolves of Debt Management have been let loose.

If you thought HMRC was difficult to deal with, the robots of DM make them look like beginners.

DM want APNs paid in 12 months. If you cannot, the default position is recovery action.

If therefore you have ignored attempts from DM to collect (and it sounds like you have) then recovery action via a County Court is on the cards.

In the run up to this, DM routinely overstate their powers and lace their threats with all sorts of dire predictions, many of which are untrue.

Nonetheless you have to take some positve action in order to head off the very worst consequence of the unpaid debt, which would be insolvency.

You should engage with DM. Make them a sensible offer. Even if they refuse it, make sure that it is in writing and acknowledged even if not accepted.

If the case reaches a Court, then having that audit trail will be important.

Most of all though - DO NOT IGNORE what you have.

Contact DM and understand where they are - what they want (money) - and the time scales.