We received feedback that some of our letters were being issued directly to clients, rather than redirecting to tax intermediaries. We’ve undertaken a systematic review of all the letters currently set to not follow the tax intermediary redirect.
While some of these letters are correctly designed to go directly to clients, some were programmed incorrectly. We have now corrected the letters that are issued at the customer, account and period level to redirect to intermediaries.
From now we will set letters to redirect by default as we move them to issue from our new system. This means a conscious choice needs to be made as part of the design process to change this setting.
The following letters have been correctly designed to always go to the client:
- Linking and delinking letters, letting the customer know that an intermediary was added to or removed from their account.
- Bank account change letters, notifying the customer when a refund bank account was changed or added.
- Certificates of exemption from schedular deductions, which are sent directly to ensure there are no delays for customers who need to urgently give it to their employer. You can view a copy of this letter in myIR.
- Letters asking that the client provide income information to their tax agent, so that a return can be filed (L letter).
- The second notification of an outstanding amount to pay, with the first notification letter going to the tax agent.
- Late filing penalty notices, letting the customer know they have been charged a late filing penalty for not filing their return. The first letter advising the return is late will redirect to tax agents. This is no change from what this letter did in our old system.
- The notification of a direct debit is issued to the recipient of the refund by design. In most cases, the client will receive this letter as the refund will generally be deposited directly into their account. If you’re using the new refund redirect to route refunds to your own bank account, this letter will go to you instead. Changing this letter without the refund redirect means your clients will receive refunds without knowing where they came from.
We’ve now resolved an issue preventing tax code letters from following the intermediaryt redirect. These letters will now be issued directly to you, rather than incorrectly sending to your clients.