How Much Does Tax Investigation Insurance Cost? (2026/27 Prices)

Ask most insurers what tax investigation insurance costs and you'll get a quote form, a phone number, and a promise that someone will be in touch. We'd rather just tell you. Cover from FeeProtect.com starts at £60.31 a year for a private individual, £122.40 for a sole trader and £192.49 for a limited company turning over less than £1 million. Every price we charge is on this page, and you can buy in about a minute without speaking to anyone. Unless you'd like to, in which case the phone number is at the bottom.

But a price on its own doesn't tell you much. So this guide also covers what an HMRC enquiry typically costs if you don't have cover, how enquiries are triggered, what the policy does and doesn't include, and the questions people usually ask before buying — so you have the full picture to make your own decision.

The full 2026/27 price list

Three things set your price: what kind of taxpayer you are, your turnover or income band, and the hourly rate you want us to cover for your accountant. That last one is the £180 and £300 columns below, and we'll explain the difference in a moment.

All prices are for 12 months' cover and include Insurance Premium Tax.

Who you are	£180/hour cover	£300/hour cover
Private individual (personal tax return)	£60.31	£120.62
Sole trader	£122.40	£244.80
Partnership, income under £1M	£148.44	£296.88
Partnership, income £1M–£5M	£168.46	£336.92
Partnership, income £5M–£10M	£300.64	£601.26
Limited company, turnover under £1M	£192.49	£384.98
Limited company, turnover £1M–£5M	£212.52	£425.04
Limited company, turnover £5M–£10M	£300.64	£601.28
Limited company, turnover £10M–£15M	£388.75	£777.50
Limited company, turnover £15M–£20M	£476.86	£953.72

Prices correct as at September 2026. If your business is larger than £20M, or you'd like a higher hourly rate covered, just ask — we arrange those individually.

Why does the price vary so much?

Because the cost of defending you varies so much. A policy for someone with a salary, a bit of rental income and a Self Assessment return is insuring a fairly contained risk: if HMRC do open an enquiry, it's usually a short exchange of letters and a few hours of your accountant's time. A limited company with £8 million of turnover is a different animal. More transactions, more records, more questions, more hours. The premium simply follows the fees an enquiry is likely to generate.

That's also why sole traders and individuals pay one flat price whatever they earn, while partnerships and companies step up by turnover band. It's not that we think a bigger business is more likely to be investigated. It's that when it is, the meter runs for longer.

£180 or £300 an hour — what's the difference?

This is the question people most often email us about, so here's the plain version. The policy pays your accountant or tax adviser for the hours they spend dealing with HMRC on your behalf, up to a maximum rate per hour. The two tiers set that maximum:

• £180 an hour is in line with the charge-out rates of many high street and regional accountancy practices, and is the tier most of our customers choose.
• £300 an hour reflects the rates more typically charged by tax specialists, partners in larger firms, and London-based advisers. It also allows more headroom if a specialist were brought in during an enquiry.

The useful fact to have to hand is your own adviser's hourly rate — if it's above the tier you've chosen, the policy pays up to the tier limit and the difference would be yours. Your accountant will be able to tell you their rate, and if you're unsure which tier fits your circumstances, the full policy terms set out exactly how the limit applies.

What does an HMRC enquiry cost without insurance?

This is the number the premium should really be measured against, and it's the one nobody tells you until the letter arrives. HMRC enquiries come in two broad flavours:

• An aspect enquiry looks at one thing — a single expense claim, one line on your return, a particular transaction. These are by far the most common. They typically take three to six months to close, and even a simple one means your accountant gathering records, drafting responses and corresponding with HMRC, often across several rounds of questions. Ten to fifteen hours of professional time is normal, so at typical rates you're looking at a bill of £1,500 to £3,000, whether or not HMRC ends up finding anything.
• A full enquiry reviews your whole return, and sometimes several years of them. These commonly run nine to sixteen months. Professional fees of £5,000 to £10,000 are routine, and complex cases — company enquiries, R&D claims, anything involving multiple taxes — can run well beyond that.

And here is the part that stings: those fees are payable even when you've done nothing wrong. A large proportion of enquiries close with no extra tax due, or a small adjustment. You still get the invoice for defending yourself.

A worked example

Take a sole trader — say a self-employed electrician — whose accountant charges £160 an hour. HMRC opens an aspect enquiry into motor expenses and asks for mileage records, invoices and an explanation of business use. The accountant spends 14 hours over five months dealing with it. HMRC accepts the position and closes the enquiry with no change.

• Accountant's fees: 14 hours × £160 = £2,240
• Premium for FeeProtect sole trader cover at the £180 rate: £122.40
• Excess: £0

The policy pays the £2,240 in full. Without it, the electrician pays £2,240 for the privilege of being told he was right. That's the whole product in one paragraph.

How likely is an HMRC enquiry, really?

Less likely than the scarier corners of the internet suggest, and more likely than "it'll never happen to me". HMRC opens hundreds of thousands of compliance checks each year against roughly twelve million Self Assessment returns and several million businesses. Most are aspect enquiries rather than full-blown investigations. For a typical taxpayer with tidy records, the odds of a full investigation in any given year are low; the odds of some kind of check over the lifetime of a business are considerably higher.

Two things have shifted the picture in recent years. First, only a small share of checks are genuinely random. The great majority are triggered by data: HMRC now cross-references your return against bank interest, Land Registry records, payroll data, digital platforms and information shared by overseas tax authorities. A mismatch — even an innocent one — is what generates the letter. Second, HMRC has invested heavily in the systems that spot those mismatches, so the net is wider than it was.

In practice, the risk is noticeably higher if you:

• run a cash-heavy trade (construction, hospitality, taxis, hair and beauty);
• are a landlord, particularly with several properties or recent sales;
• work through your own limited company as a contractor or consultant;
• have made R&D tax credit claims, which HMRC is scrutinising closely;
• have income from abroad, crypto assets, or online platform sales;
• have filed late, amended returns more than once, or had a previous enquiry.

None of these mean you've done anything wrong. They mean your return has more places for a data mismatch to appear.

What you're actually paying for

Whichever price you land on, the cover underneath is identical:

• Up to £100,000 of professional fees per policy for representing you in an HMRC enquiry. Very few enquiries get anywhere near that, which is rather the point of insurance.
• No excess. We pay from the first pound. Plenty of policies sold through accountants carry an excess; ours never has.
• Full and aspect enquiries into Self Assessment or Corporation Tax returns, plus VAT and PAYE compliance visits. That includes the routine-sounding "compliance check" letters that turn out to be anything but.
• Your own accountant does the work. The person who already knows your affairs deals with HMRC, and we settle their fees directly. You're not handed to a helpline or someone else's panel.
• Twelve months, no auto-renewal. We'll remind you three or four weeks before expiry. If you want to renew, it takes a minute. If you don't, nothing happens. Nobody's card gets charged on a policy they'd forgotten about.

What isn't covered

Every insurance policy has edges, and you should know where ours are before you buy rather than after. The main ones:

• The tax itself. This is fee protection, not tax protection. If an enquiry finds tax is owed, you pay the tax, and any interest and penalties. We pay the professional fees for handling the enquiry.
• Enquiries that have already started. Cover has to be in place before HMRC gets in touch. A policy bought the day after the letter arrives won't respond to that letter.
• Deliberate wrongdoing. If an enquiry establishes fraud or deliberate concealment, the policy won't pay for defending it.
• Routine work. Preparing your accounts and tax return is your accountant's normal job and isn't claimable. The policy covers the extra work an enquiry creates.
• Returns filed late. Most fee protection policies require the return under enquiry to have been filed on time, and ours is no exception.

The full terms are in the policy document, which you can read before you buy. If something in your situation makes you unsure whether you'd be covered, call us — that's a far better conversation to have now than at claim time.

How to compare prices sensibly

You'll find tax investigation insurance advertised at all sorts of prices, and some of it costs less than ours. Some costs a great deal more. The trouble is that the products behind those prices aren't the same, so before you compare a headline figure with our table, check five things on any policy you're looking at:

1. The fee limit. £100,000 is at the higher end. Some policies stop at a quarter of that.
2. Whether there's an excess. A cheaper premium with a £250 excess isn't cheaper the day you claim.
3. The hourly rate it pays. If the policy caps at £100 an hour and your accountant charges £175, you're funding the gap yourself.
4. Who represents you. Your own accountant, or the insurer's panel firm you've never met?
5. What's been added on top. Cover bought through an accountancy scheme or a membership body is often perfectly good, but the price can include the practice's commission or the cost of a membership you didn't otherwise want. Buying direct means the premium is just the premium.

Compared on those five points, we think our prices hold up very well indeed. But you should check — that's rather the spirit of the thing.

Is the premium tax deductible?

Generally, no — and we'd rather say so plainly. HMRC's guidance treats fee protection premiums as not allowable for tax purposes, because the policy covers some enquiry outcomes whose costs wouldn't themselves be deductible and the premium can't be split. It's worth knowing that the relief would only ever have been worth a few pounds anyway; the value of the cover was never in the tax treatment of the premium. The full reasoning, and what it means for the accountancy fees during an enquiry itself, is in our separate guide: Is tax investigation insurance tax deductible?

Quick questions

Can I buy cover after I've received a letter from HMRC?
You can buy it, but it won't cover that enquiry — the policy responds to enquiries notified after cover starts. It's the same principle as any insurance: you can't insure the house once it's on fire, so cover needs to be in place before HMRC makes contact.

Do I need an accountant to make a claim?
You need a professional adviser to represent you — that's whose fees we're paying. If you don't currently have one, you can appoint one when an enquiry starts; the policy doesn't require you to have used them before.

Does it cover the tax I might owe?
No. It covers the professional fees for handling the enquiry. Tax, interest and penalties, if any are found due, remain yours.

Does it cover VAT and PAYE checks, or just my tax return?
Both. VAT compliance visits and PAYE/NIC inspections are covered alongside Self Assessment and Corporation Tax enquiries.

When does cover start?
On the start date you choose at checkout, which can be today. Documents arrive by email straight away.

What happens at renewal?
We email you three to four weeks before the policy ends. Renew in a minute or let it lapse — there's no automatic charge.

Get your price

Pick your taxpayer type and hourly rate on the quote and buy page and your price appears instantly. Cover starts on the date you choose and your policy documents arrive by email straight away. And if you'd rather talk it through first, we're on 01935 389812 — you'll get a person, not a menu.

FeeProtect.com is arranged by Straight Solutions Ltd, an independent insurance intermediary authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA 315448). The insurance is underwritten by ARAG Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited and administered by ARAG plc. Cover is subject to the policy terms and conditions. Figures for enquiry durations and typical professional fees are illustrative, based on published industry experience, and will vary by case. Prices correct at September 2026 and may change.