UTR - How long

DickyP_2

Newby to these parts as I have relied on PAYE and info provided by company.

Anyway long story short I have been missing out on claiming fuel allowance back since Nov 2006. Anyway first period is on the P87 form as below 2.5k but all other years are over this.

So have submitted for UTR but it's been months, literally, started process beginning of July but still nothing, how long should this take?

Have received letter back regarding P87 but no rebate even though put claim in for 2.4k, all they said was I have paid the correct level of tax for that period no reference on what I was claiming? Thoughts.

Thanks

BoGoF

How did you apply for it?

DickyP_2

Post via accountant to handle process.

chrismac1

Tak a piece of string, send it all round every tax office in the UK, lose it in the postroooms twice and then double it. That's how long it takes these folk to issue a 10 digit number. How hard can it be?

BoGoF

chrismac1 wrote: »

Tak a piece of string, send it all round every tax office in the UK, lose it in the postroooms twice and then double it. That's how long it takes these folk to issue an 8 digit number. How hard can it be?

When did they shorten UTR's to 8 digits ?

suso

BoGoF wrote: »

When did they shorten UTR's to 8 digits ?

they haven't, but when did his figures ever add up ?

DickyP wrote: »

Post via accountant to handle process.

when did your accountant submit the SA1 in order to register you for self assessment, takes about 4 weeks to process at the moment from when submitted.

John_Pierpoint

In fairness to HMRC, as the self assessment system is largely automated, have there not been examples of crooks registering (fake?) people, supplying fake figures and pocketing real refunds/subsidies?

I posted a link to a freedom of information question to figures that would now be three years old, when having a similar problem.
The figures demonstrated that it was not just my bad luck but I was dealing with the tax office with the biggest backlog: 125,000+ items of unanswered mail, if I remember correctly.
Cardiff had one of the lowest backlog BUT how many tax payers were registered to Cardiff?

Someone needs to repeat the exercise and get up to date figures or do we now have just one centralised unknown figure?.

chrismac1

John, the point you make is totally accurate. However, my point is just how much tax does the issuing of a 10-digit number enable someone to defraud the country of? NIL.

Instead of the silly jobsworthy checks they run before issuing these numbers - which holds up tax to the country in 90% plus of cases as people are mostly registering in order to pay more tax - they should be doing their jobs properly when the returns come in. How hard can it be to simply flag up for proper review every first-time tax return which is a refund situation?

The same goes for VAT. HMRC took 4 months to issue a VAT number to a car dealer client, then had the brass neck to try and fine him for exceeding the VAT threshhold. We soon saw that one off - but my point is that a car dealer is only ever going to pay VAT, so why pratt around for months getting the number out? Just issue the damn thing in 5 working days and if the first claim is a refund then get off your backside and go and visit the business and make sure it's legit.

TwistedPsycho

DickyP. I registered by phone and it took 6 weeks.

So if you include the time it takes to reach your accountant and then the processing for that, etc, etc.......

olly300

suso wrote: »

when did your accountant submit the SA1 in order to register you for self assessment, takes about 4 weeks to process at the moment from when submitted.

Agreed.

My UTR took just over 3 weeks to arrive.

chrismac1

2 weeks is my own PB, over 4 months is the worst. I have no idea of any reason other than general inefficiency why the 4 month one took 4 month, it seemed box standard to me and the guy was paying £3k or more in tax.

This is off topic, but incredible as it may seem the HMRC database is not yet up to date for the corporation tax changes in the 2011 Budget. Hence my clients who have year ends of 30 April, 31 May and 30 June are unable to submit their corporation tax returns as yet, although the accounts have been submitted to Companies House. The total corporation tax due from these clients is well over £20k, they are the sort of client who might easily pay early if the country could send them a statement asking them for the cash.

The joint bodies of the accountancy profession reckon about £20 Billion at least per year is not being collected which could be collected. Much of this is hard tack - tax evaders and the like. But I see at least £50k in my own client base which is easy peasy lemon squeezy, so what must the total of easy stuff be nationally I wonder?