Farmers warned against fraudsters stealing VAT refund cash

Farmers are warned to check that HMRC has the correct bank details for VAT refunds.

This is because fraudsters are imitating genuine businesses, contacting HMRC to request changes to bank account information, then collecting the VAT refund cash.

Accountant Price Bailey alerted Farmers Weekly to the fraud and recommends that farmers log in to their government gateway online account to check that all details are correct.

See also: Common farm VAT mistakes and how to avoid them

In particular, anyone who is waiting longer than usual for a VAT repayment should check their account as soon as possible.

An HMRC spokesperson said: “We are taking action on the small number of cases where paper bank variation forms have been fraudulently used in an attempt to gain access to VAT repayments.  

“We’re putting measures in place to stop this from happening while asking businesses to remain vigilant.”