HMRC is reporting that more than 100,000 PAYE clients have been impacted by unauthorized access and filings on their online accounts. They are now in the process of writing to all those clients regarding this issue.

These incidents involved criminals using personal information they had already obtained from external sources to impersonate genuine customers and claim money fraudulently from HMRC, rather than customers themselves.

HMRC say they took action to protect customer data and secure affected accounts as soon as possible. They have issued guarantees that no customers have experienced, or will experience, financial loss in respect of their tax affairs. They are in contact with other law enforcement agencies both in the UK and overseas to bring those responsible to justice. 

The letters advise customers who are represented to show their agent a copy. We believe that this applies in a minority of cases as most customers affected by this incident are unrepresented.