Updated on 6 April 2026

HMRC's extra support team

HMRC’s extra support team is a small team of specially trained advisers who can spend more time with individuals who are often in vulnerable circumstances and so offer a more personalised service. The team do not follow scripts rigidly. They also join things up with other parts of HMRC, so that you do not have to.

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Introduction to the extra support service

HMRC offers a special service for customers whose health conditions or personal circumstances make dealing with standard tax processes difficult – the extra support team.

The extra support team work on a holistic basis, considering all your affairs and have the ability to join things up with other parts of HMRC so you don’t have to. This means that solving a problem in one area should not leave another issue festering in the background. They will take ownership of cases, keep you updated and educate you to self-serve next time. 

The extra support team provide an important layer of help to:

  • people trying to use online services who require digital assistance (excluding password issues etc. which can be dealt with by HMRC’s standard technical support with online services helpdesk)
  • individuals who need information in an alternative format, for example Braille or other reasonable adjustments, like more time – see our additional needs guidance
  • migrant workers who, in addition to other adjustments, might also need help in other languages (those simply struggling with a language barrier can access support via HMRC’s core helplines with the use of an interpreter – as set out in our guidance).

However, their service goes further than this. 

If you can’t understand what you are being told by HMRC or are struggling to deal with some paperwork or resolve an issue with them, the extra support service may be able to assist.

This may be because of difficulties communicating, bereavement, a mental health issue, a learning disability, illness or other vulnerability. But also because an issue has got out of hand and you just don’t know where to turn.

You can read more about the extra support team on GOV.UK and in HMRC’s publication: HMRC’s principles of support for customers who need extra help. 

What tax issues the extra support service can help with

The extra support team can help with:

  • Income tax and PAYE
  • Self assessment or simple assessment
  • Legacy tax credits issues
  • National Insurance
  • Inheritance tax
  • Child benefit
  • VAT
  • Corporation tax
  • Construction industry scheme (CIS)
  • Employers’ queries
  • Horizon Shortfall Scheme

You may notice that the list above doesn’t match the list on GOV.UK, however we understand that the GOV.UK list just refers to the areas that the extra support team can support by webchat. The extra support team can help on all of the other issues to some extent over the phone and if necessary via a face to face appointment. See how to contact the extra support team, below. 

A typical example of the type of work the extra support team do can be seen by looking at the case of Joyce.

Example – Extra support for a taxpayer with self assessment issues 

Joyce is a cleaner from Portugal. She has limited English and is unfamiliar with the UK tax system.

With the help of a friend, she registered as self-employed in 2023/24 and prepared a tax return. Her 2023/24 tax return was submitted a few months late – her mother had been taken seriously ill and she was back home in Portugal at the time of the deadline in January 2025. Sadly, her mother died, and Joyce stayed in Portugal. She therefore stopped working as a cleaner in the UK in 2024/25 but forgot to tell HMRC, so they continue to send her tax returns to complete.

Joyce contacts the extra support team and they help cancel the late filing penalties for the 2023/24 tax year as she clearly had a ‘reasonable excuse’ for not filing her tax return on time. They help her complete her 2024/25 tax return – the tax return for the year she stopped trading. They withdraw the requirement for her to file the subsequent 2025/26 tax return as she is no longer self-employed. 

If Joyce has an amount to pay for 2023/24 and/or 2024/25 and she can’t pay it, HMRC’s debt management team will discuss with her how it might be paid (more on this below under the heading If you have tax debt).

Scope of the service

HMRC’s extra support team can help with self assessment issues such as the ones in the above example and things like:

  • Tax code issues/changes
  • Completion of forms (including straightforward tax returns – more on this below) where you have all the information required/there is no question over whether tax return due
  • Needing information such as employment history or account balance
  • Delayed HMRC processes, such as P800 reconciliations, that are causing severe anxiety or hardship
  • Tax issues arising from economic abuse situations, such as where financial information is withheld to prevent you dealing with your obligations or tax obligations are created in your name. There is a dedicated article looking at tax-related economic abuse and where to get help linked to in the You might also like… section below.

HMRC's extra support team may not be able to help if sophisticated calculations are needed, if the case is very complex/long running, if you are in dispute with HMRC and need independent advice (for example, on the loan charge) or if previous contacts with the team have not solved the issue. In these instances, you may need help from other organisations, including from the tax charity TaxAid, with whom the extra support team have handover arrangements. Details of other organisations the extra support team work closely with can be found on GOV.UK. 

Tax returns

HMRC have confirmed the following to us about what the extra support team can do to help with tax returns:

  • If a taxpayer needs to complete a paper tax return HMRC can take the numbers, put them in the boxes and send the return back to the taxpayer to check the entries and sign. The taxpayer remains responsible for ensuring the figures entered on the return are true and accurate, so checking is important. 
  • If the taxpayer is filing online, HMRC will not enter the figures for them, but will try to guide the taxpayer to do it themselves. If it is not possible to do that via a phone call, HMRC can arrange a virtual appointment via ‘Teams’ or a physical face-to-face appointment (see below). At no point will HMRC complete an online return for the taxpayer, no matter how simple.
  • If the return is not necessary – such as a nil return - HMRC can cancel the issued return and remove the taxpayer from the self assessment system.

If a taxpayer has missed the paper filing deadline, and is unable to file their return online, the extra support team will consider whether it is possible to cancel any late filing penalties. 

If you have tax debt

HMRC want to help if you have tax debt that you are struggling to pay. If you feel you need extra support from HMRC with tax debt issues, in the first instance, you should contact the debt management team, using the contact details you have on the letter sent to you. If you haven’t received a letter from debt management yet, use the general number for payment problems found on GOV.UK.

Make sure you understand how the debt is made up and that your tax affairs are fully up to date so that HMRC are trying to collect the correct amount of tax. If you do not think the amount of debt is correct and/or you have lots of tax issues outstanding, you should make this very clear to the debt management team.

The debt management team have been given instructions on how to deal with taxpayers who need extra help because of health conditions or vulnerability, which you can read on GOV.UK. You need to explain your personal circumstances to the debt management team so that they can take appropriate action. This might be to try and help you themselves or to pass you to the extra support team.

Example – tax debt in extra support cases

Mary has a chronic health condition and gets behind with her tax returns for several years. She receives help from the extra support team to bring her tax affairs up to date and identify how much she needs to pay HMRC going back all relevant years – this is her tax debt. Mary may be able to pay this outright or arrange a payment plan with HMRC’s debt management section.

In rare circumstances, HMRC may decide not to pursue payment of tax. This is sometimes known as remission. The tax is not permanently written off, but you will not receive further demands unless your circumstances improve unexpectedly. Remission is most common in the case of a person who is elderly, sick or long-term unemployed, and has no assets and lives in rented accommodation.

If necessary, Mary can ask the debt management section to refer her case back to the extra support team so that the special advisers can help her with the debt aspects of her case. If the extra support team arrange remission of the debt, then Mary should be aware that her case will be reviewed periodically for any change of circumstances (either by the extra support team or the debt management section). 

If you are having a compliance check

HMRC sometimes check people’s tax position. This is known as a compliance check.

The HMRC compliance team follow the extra support principles and have access to extra support advisers to guide them around how best they can support any taxpayers they are checking.

HMRC’s guidance explains the compliance check process and explains the help you can get during and after the check. You can find the help and support page on GOV.UK.

How to contact the extra support team

There is not a unique phone number for the team. You can access the extra support team via the ordinary HMRC helplines – you should tell the telephone adviser about any special circumstances that may be affecting you on either a temporary or permanent basis. 

  Note that HMRC’s principles of support publication coves how advisers may proactively identify customers who need extra help.

The helpline advisers decide, based on their contact with you, whether they need to hand you over to the extra support team. If so, this should be a warm handover to the extra support team so that you do not have to explain your circumstances again. We understand from HMRC that if a member of the extra support team is not available, the helpline adviser will take your details and arrange for an extra support team adviser to call you back within 48 hours.

You should not be afraid to ask to be transferred to the extra support team or to speak to a supervisor or manager if you do not feel the adviser understands what you are saying about your circumstances and needs.

Some people can also get help from extra support team using webchat. This can often be a quicker option than telephoning via the helplines. 

The extra support team can sometimes hold face-to-face appointments, with advisers based across the whole UK. This could include a face-to-face visit at a specified venue near to home or possibly in your home if you are unable to travel.

Taxpayers can use an online form on GOV.UK to arrange a face-to-face appointment if they find it difficult to use a telephone (not limited to those who are deaf, hard of hearing or with speech impairments). Normally, though, the extra support team will try to deal with queries over the phone as much as possible.

If HMRC really can’t help and you are on a low income then the tax charity TaxAid, may be able to help in appropriate circumstances.

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