Subject Access Request to HM Revenue & Customs

Most people searching for this do not need a subject access request. HMRC says to use it only for information that is not already in your personal tax account or the HMRC app, both of which cover the current tax year and the previous 5 years and are free and immediate. Agents and solicitors with authorisation can use the Income Record Viewer for the same 5-year window. Employment history has its own route. HMRC publishes a separate employment history service, which is the route it points people to for a compensation claim, a loan application or a work visa renewal. It says you can get a record of the current and past 5 years' employment through your personal tax account or the HMRC app, or by applying on a paper form by post. A subject access request is for information that is not already available that way. HMRC does not offer an email route for subject access requests. The published routes are the online form, post to BX9 1AN, or phone and webchat. HMRC may take up to 3 months rather than 1 where a request is complex or where it has received several requests from the same person, and it will write to tell you if so. From 1 April 2026 the Valuation Office, formerly the Valuation Office Agency and including Rent Officers, is part of HMRC and shares its request process. HMRC is also the controller for the Adjudicator's Office. Requests about someone who has died are not subject access requests and go through the probate process instead. advice.dpa@hmrc.gov.uk is HMRC's Data Protection Officer address for complaints and data protection questions once the normal HMRC complaints process has been exhausted. It is not the route for making the request itself.

Made under UK GDPR Article 15, subject to the exemptions in Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018

Central government departments hold large, long-lived files, and requests to them are usually tied to a decision the person is challenging: an immigration application, a benefit decision, a tax assessment. Naming the decision, the date and any reference number substantially improves what comes back.

Departments also have exemptions available to them that most organisations do not. Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 lets them restrict access where complying would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime, the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, or the assessment or collection of a tax or duty. HMRC relies on the last of these. Separately, an immigration exemption lets the Home Office restrict access where complying would be likely to prejudice effective immigration control. Both are limited to the extent of the prejudice — neither is a blanket refusal, and a department has to justify withholding rather than assert it.

The immigration exemption in particular has been narrowed by litigation. The Court of Appeal found it incompatible with the UK GDPR twice, in 2021 and again in December 2023, and it was amended after each judgment. Since the amendments in force on 8 March 2024 the Home Office must decide case by case, separately for each right, and afresh each time, must show a substantial risk that outweighs the risk to your interests, must record its reasons, and must tell you it has applied the exemption unless saying so would itself be prejudicial.

Departments run their own subject access routes rather than one central one, and several also publish a faster self-service channel that answers the same question for free. Using the wrong one is the most common cause of delay: a request sent to a general enquiry address gets rerouted, and a request for information already sitting in an online account gets refused as unnecessary.

• Immigration and visa application files
• Benefit claim records and decision notes
• Tax records and correspondence
• Records of a decision you are appealing
• Internal notes and assessments about you

Deadline. An organisation must respond without undue delay and within one month. It may extend by up to two further months where the request is complex or you have made a number of requests, but it must tell you within the first month that it is doing so, and why.

Cost. There is normally no fee. A reasonable fee may only be charged where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, or where you ask for further copies.

Proving who you are. An organisation may ask you to verify your identity, but only where it has reasonable doubts about who you are, and it should ask for the minimum needed. Where it needs further information to deal with your request, the one-month clock pauses until you provide it.

How hard they have to look. An organisation has to carry out a reasonable and proportionate search — not an exhaustive one. What counts as reasonable depends on the volume of information, the difficulty of locating it, and the size and resources of the organisation. This is a common reason for a partial response, and it is worth being specific about what you want.

If they ignore you. Complain to the organisation first. Since 19 June 2026 every organisation has had a legal duty to give you a clear way to raise a data protection complaint, to acknowledge it within 30 days, to look into it properly and to tell you the outcome. If it does not, or the answer is incomplete, you can then complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.