A company has used my address for their VAT registration...

I received a letter to my home from HMRC confirming a company had successfully registered themselves for VAT. I have no connection whatsoever to this company, so can only assume they've used my address fraudulently. I tried reaching out to the company to ask why they'd used my address but they are not co-operating - you'd think if this were an innocent mistake they'd resolve it immediately but it has been over two months now... Has anyone experienced anything similar? Apart from informing HMRC and waiting for them to remove my address from the company's account, is there anything else I can do?

You may also want to check Companies House https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company If the fraudsters have a VAT number associated to your home address then there is a big chance that the fraudsters have also registered a company at your address as HMRC check Companies House when issuing VAT numbers and as long as the address on Companies House is a real address (even if it is some random persons house), then HMRC will issue a VAT number no questions asked. You can file a report to Companies House to have your address removed, link here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-a-company-using-your-personal-details-without-your-permission I'd also write to HMRC or use their online fraud report here https://www.gov.uk/report-tax-fraud and the reason to do this in writing is to ensure you have some sort of audit trail/evidence that you reported it, then if there are any VAT debts incurred by the fraudsters or other legal issues, you've formally reported the fraud to HMRC via post and online, you have proof and if HMRC can't be bothered to act then it at least protects you from debt collectors or legal actions.

Hi,

Please contact our VAT team so we can investigate.

VAT: general enquiries

Thank you.