HMRC visits: how to check an officer's identity under the rules updated on 7 October

On 7 October 2026 HMRC rewrote its official guidance on how to make sure that the person at your door — at home or at your business address — really works for the tax authority. The change note is explicit: the process for confirming an officer's identity in a face-to-face meeting has been updated. A visit "from the tax office" is one of the most common scam scripts in the UK, and until recently there was no quick way to check the person in front of you.

What exactly changed on 7 October 2026?

HMRC rewrote the procedure for confirming an officer's identity in person — it now comes down to five steps and one 24-hour number, 03000 565 656.

The page "Check the identity of someone representing HMRC in person" was first published on 5 September 2023 and has been amended several times since: in March 2025 both the process and the phone number changed, and in January 2026 the number was updated again and a section on reporting suspicious emails and texts was added. The 7 October 2026 change is specifically about meeting an officer face to face.

HMRC's general rule has not changed: anyone representing HMRC will always identify themselves and explain why they are visiting. If the person does not do that, there is no reason to continue the conversation.

How do you check that someone really is an HMRC officer?

Ask for the identification card, write down the name and serial number, call the number the officer gives you, and read those details to the adviser.

HMRC sets out five steps:

1. The officer shows their HMRC identification card, which carries their name, photograph and HMRC serial number.
2. You make a note of the name and serial number.
3. The officer gives you an HMRC telephone number — 03000 565 656.
4. You call and give the adviser the name and serial number.
5. The adviser confirms whether the person is a genuine HMRC officer.

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The detail that matters: you make the call yourself, from your own phone. If the caller at your door offers you their handset or dictates a different number, no check has taken place.

What is 03000 565 656 for — and what will it not do?

It is a dedicated HMRC line, available 24 hours a day, used for one purpose only: verifying the identity of an HMRC officer in a face-to-face situation.

HMRC spells out the limits. The line cannot help with queries about emails, letters or phone calls you have received, and it must not be used for general tax enquiries. General questions go through the standard HMRC contact routes; suspicious messages go to the reporting channels described below.

How is a collector different from an officer, and why another number?

An HMRC collector visits people who owe unpaid tax, and their identity is confirmed on a different number — 0300 200 3862.

The procedure is the same: an identification card with name, photograph and serial number, you note the details and call. The number simply differs — officers and collectors have separate verification lines.

A collector's visit does not come out of nowhere. Under HMRC's guidance "What will happen if you do not pay your tax bill", before taking any action — except where it suspects fraud or criminal activity — HMRC tries to contact you and agree a way forward. A visit to your home or business address is what follows when someone does not engage or refuses to pay. If you cannot pay, it is far better to contact HMRC yourself and discuss a Time to Pay arrangement before it reaches that stage.

Can a collector turn up in the evening or at the weekend?

A collector will usually visit between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, and if someone comes at another time you are entitled to arrange a return visit during those hours.

HMRC puts it plainly: if a collector visits outside those hours and you want to confirm their identity, arrange an appointment for them to return between 8am and 6pm on a weekday. Late evenings, nights and weekends are not part of the normal process, and a visit at such a time is itself a reason for caution.

Can you pay on the doorstep, and with which card?

Yes — every HMRC collector carries a card payment machine — but a personal credit card is not accepted at all, and corporate cards carry a non-refundable fee.

According to HMRC, a collector may take payment during a visit, either in full or as a part payment under a Time to Pay arrangement. The card rules are: personal debit card, no fee; corporate credit or corporate debit card, a non-refundable fee; personal credit card, not accepted.

That gives a simple test: a demand for cash, a transfer to someone's personal account, gift cards or cryptocurrency has nothing to do with HMRC's own procedures.

Do the debt collection agencies working for HMRC visit people at home?

No. Agencies acting for HMRC contact you only by letter, text message or phone, and they never visit your home or place of work.

HMRC states this as a separate line in its guidance. Eight companies are listed as agencies that may contact you on HMRC's behalf: 1st Locate (trading as LCS), Advantis Credit Ltd, Ardent Credit Services (trading as Debt & Revenue Services, DRS), BPO Collections Ltd, BW Legal Services Limited (BWL), CCS Collect (Commercial Collection Services Ltd), Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd and Pastdue Credit Solutions Limited. All are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and must follow HMRC's processes.

The practical conclusion: if someone at your door says they are from "an HMRC debt collection agency", HMRC's own description says that visit should not be happening. Deductions taken straight from a bank account are a separate matter — we covered how that works at the DWP in our piece on debt recovery direct from bank accounts.

What should you do about a suspicious HMRC letter, text or call?

HMRC runs four separate reporting channels: suspicious emails go to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk, texts are forwarded to 60599, social media accounts to branddefence@hmrc.gov.uk, and phone calls are reported through an online service.

HMRC also lists what it never does: it does not notify you of a tax rebate by text or ask for personal or payment details in a text message; it never uses social media to offer a rebate or request personal or financial information; and emails about a rebate come only from addresses ending in hmrc.gov.uk. Forwarding a text to 60599 is charged at your network rate.

Before assuming the worst, you can compare the message against HMRC's published list of genuine contacts, which describes real letters, calls and texts by subject. It is also worth remembering that HMRC is moving parts of its service online — we wrote about the automatic transfer of some taxpayers to digital reporting in our piece on Making Tax Digital.

What is worth doing now, before anyone knocks?

Save the two numbers — 03000 565 656 for an officer and 0300 200 3862 for a collector — somewhere you can find them within a minute.

It also helps to know where you stand: whether you have unpaid tax, whether letters from HMRC have arrived, whether debts are building up elsewhere. If you owe money in several places, the order in which you pay matters — see our guide to priority debts and the Breathing Space scheme. And on how large-scale scam operations work and when a bank has to refund you, we published a separate article.

If the person at your door refuses to show identification, rushes you, will not let you call the official number, or demands immediate payment in cash, then by HMRC's own description they do not work for HMRC.