We asked HMRC about a case where a criminal used a legitimate company’s details, apparently successfully, to apply for a VAT registration number and make fraudulent VAT 13 Qq 14, 33, 43–45 14 Qq 80–83, 92–95 15 Q 84 16 Qq 89–91, 113 12 HMRC performance in 2021–22 repayment claims. This fraud was only picked up when the legitimate company received communication from a debt collection agency requesting payment. We raised concerns that safeguards adopted in other countries appear more effective at identifying this type of fraud at an earlier stage, with the German tax authorities apparently refusing the same criminal a VAT registration and reporting the incident to the police.17