Commentary Section 12 Recovery of payments by HMRC
74.This section enables regulations to be made concerning the recovery of payments made by HMRC.
75.Subsection (1) gives the Treasury power to make regulations requiring persons of a description to be specified in regulations to account for any sums paid by the Commissioners in relation to Saving Gateway accounts. Regulations made under this power may, for example, enable HMRC to recover any amounts that have been overpaid to an account provider in response to a claim made under section 11(3)(a).
76.Subsection (2) enables regulations to be made treating sums due to the Commissioners under this section as tax charged in an assessment, for the purposes of Part 6 of the Taxes Management Act 1970(12), which contains provisions relating to the collection and recovery of tax. Under these provisions, HMRC may issue formal demands for payment. Part 6 also makes provision for collection by distraint and for recovery through Court proceedings where a person refuses to pay an amount charged. Regulations made under this subsection may enable HMRC to collect sums to be recovered under section 12 in the same way as sums of tax due.
77.Subsection (3) enables regulations to prescribe time limits after which a person ceases to be required to account to the Commissioners for an amount paid under this Act. The Government intends to provide in regulations that these time limits will be aligned with those which apply to tax amounts due, as set out in the Taxes Management Act 1970.