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HMRC urgent warning as 100,000 taxpayers 'to be contacted in next three weeks'Letters are being sent to those affectedNewsAnnabal Bagdi Senior reporter17:54, 04 Jun 2025Letters are being

sent to those affected HMRC has said it will contact 100,000 taxpayers over an 'organised crime' breach of tax accounts.

A group of MPs today (Wednesday, June 4) heard that HMRC has lost £47 million in a serious breach.

‌ Two senior civil servants at HMRC told the Treasury Committee that accounts were locked down in what they said was an incident which began last year.

‌ Staff at the tax authority are working to contact 100,000 people over the incident.

HMRC chief executive John-Paul Marks said taxpayers who are being contacted will suffer 'no financial loss'.

Mr Marks told the Committee: "It’s about 0.2% of the PAYE population, around 100,000 people, who we have written to, are writing to, to notify them that we detected activity on their PAYE

account."

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Asked if this applied to individual working people's PAYE accounts, not companies, he replied: "That’s right, individuals.

"To be clear, no financial loss to those individuals.

‌ "This was organised crime phishing for identity data outwith of HMRC systems."

The incident took place last year, 'including jurisdictions outside the UK'.

An investigation into the matter led to 'some arrests last year', Mr Marks told MPs.

‌ Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s deputy chief executive and second permanent secretary, said: "At the moment, they’ve managed to extract repayments to the tune of £47 million.

"Now that is a lot of money, and it’s very unacceptable.

"We have overall, in the last tax year, we actually protected £1.9 billion worth of money which sought to be taken from us by attacks."

‌ Ms MacDonald insisted the breach was 'not a cyber attack, we have not been hacked, we have not had data extracted from us'.

She added: "The ability for somebody to breach your systems and to extract data, to hold you to ransomware and all of those things, that is a cyber attack.

"That is not what has happened here."

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HMRC said it locked down affected accounts and deleted log-in details to prevent future unauthorised access.

Any incorrect information has been removed from tax records, while officials have checked to ensure no other details have been changed.

‌ People affected will receive a letter from HMRC over the next three weeks.

An HMRC spokesperson said: "We’ve acted to protect customers after identifying attempts to access a very small minority of tax accounts, and we’re working with other law enforcement agencies

both in the UK and overseas to bring those responsible to justice.

"This was not a cyber-attack – it involved criminals using personal information from phishing activity or data obtained elsewhere to try to claim money from HMRC.

Article continues below "We’re writing to those customers affected to reassure them we’ve secured their accounts and that they haven’t lost any money."