Have you set up your Personal Tax Accounts with HMRC? It is a useful source of information including how much HMRC think you owe them. It does in fact tell you a lot more.

There used to be different ways of getting access but from 3 October the PTA must be accessed using a government gateway ID and password. The other method has now been discontinued.

Once you have accessed your personal tax account HMRC will automatically send you all tax related notices electronically through that account and not on paper. You can switch back to paper notices, using the ‘profile and settings’ in the PTA.

If you are still submitting your tax return on paper you will find that there will be pressure to file online, when you access your PTA, but filing online is not as easy as viewing the online PTA.

Here is the link to set up your account: https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account

Many people are frightened of doing tax-related tasks online due to the number of fraudsters who pretend to be HMRC. Autumn is prime time for such scam-artists to increase their activities because you expect greater contact with HMRC at this time of year, so it is easier to catch you out.

You also need to be vigilant and not be taken in by a phone call or email that promises a tax rebate, or threatens you with imminent court action is you don’t pay your arrears immediately. HMRC will never ask for bank details or insist on a payment over the phone or email.

You need to be on your guard and if the HMRC contact feels wrong, end it until you can check.