UK Edition
Ping! Pay your tax now or face a penalty. HMRC sends out 'threatening' SMS texts to taxpayers
The taxman has started to send out “threatening” text message warnings to taxpayers stating that they are being “monitored” to ensure they pay on time, it has emerged.
More than 13,000 taxpayers who fill in self-assessment tax returns have taken part in trials in which they have been sent SMS messages to remind them to pay tax on time.
The taxpayers – who had previously been contacted by HMRC about their debt – received three types of message in a trial run by the Government’s ‘nudge’ unit or Behavioural Insights Team.
A report from the team said: “The ‘Standard’ SMS message simply alerted the recipient to the debt and told them how to pay.
“The ‘Monitoring’ message pointed out that HM Revenue and Customs would be monitoring whether the debt was paid in the following week.
“The ‘Penalties’ message included the phrase, ‘Most people pay on time to avoid penalties’.”
The report from the unit – which is 30 per cent owned by the Government – found that “sending the ‘standard’ message only increased payment by 2.3 percentage points.
“However, the ‘monitoring’ message raised payment rates by 3.8 percentage points, and the ‘penalties’ message by 7 percentage points, or 20 per cent in relative terms.
“Given that SMS messages are cheap to send, these results are very promising indeed.”
The group also targeted other late taxpayers with other text messages including one that reminded them of the deadline and saying “you were late last time”.
The number of late payers hitting the deadline after receiving these other text messsages increased by 50 per cent.
Anita Monteith, senior tax policy adviser at the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales, warned that ordinary taxpayers could become needlessly alarmed by the messages.
She said: “People are always scared when they receive a message from HMRC – even the nice ones. Certainly anything threatening would not be acceptable.”
The SMS campaign marks an escalation on previous campaigns which have seen HMRC tinker with the wording in letters to increase tax repayment rates dramatically.
HMRC has claimed to have gained an extra £210million from taxpayers by using controversial “nudge” tactics that predict how people will respond to official communications and encourage them to make the “right” response.
It also emerged that GPs are cutting back on handing out antibiotics after being warned about over-prescribing them, research shows.
The Behavioural Insights Team said prescriptions were reduced by just over 3 per cent - 73,406 - between 2014 and 2015 after it sent letters to 800 GP practices, telling them that other practices were recommending antibiotics in fewer cases.
Researchers said the aim of the study was to crack down on the growth of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which they describe as “one of the major health challenges of our time”.
AMR will result in 10 million deaths a year worldwide by 2050, according to national figures. The study was part of a wide-ranging investigation looking at education, employment and energy.