Is it us or HMRC?

xylophone

I don't know if this is progress or not, but DH has found his self assessment forms from 2001. This gives him a UTR (labelled as such) in the form 11111 11111.

And guess what? It's the same as the Tax Reference on his SA316 (do a self assessment) for 2013-14.

Well, it's supposed to be "his for life"- the lucky fellow!:D

Back to my own tax files and I find that on my last SA form, (2014-15) and indeed on previous forms, the UTR (in 5 space 5) format is different from the Tax Reference.

However, in recent letter (see above) I notice that the Tax Reference is my UTR.....

It seems to me that your husband does have a UTR but the question is does he have (or should he have) two of them? You mentioned self employment - through his own company?

See http://www.tempoaccounting.com/help/tax-return/requesting-a-personal-utr-number

Savvy_Sue

xylophone wrote: »

Well, it's supposed to be "his for life"- the lucky fellow!:D

Back to my own tax files and I find that on my last SA form, (2014-15) and indeed on previous forms, the UTR (in 5 space 5) format is different from the Tax Reference.

However, in recent letter (see above) I notice that the Tax Reference is my UTR.....

It seems to me that your husband does have a UTR but the question is does he have (or should he have) two of them? You mentioned self employment - through his own company?

See http://www.tempoaccounting.com/help/tax-return/requesting-a-personal-utr-number

No, he should only have one of them, he is a sole trader rather than involved in a partnership or ltd co.


He's going to have another go today, and this time note exactly what error message he's getting whenever he gets one. (I know, I know.)


We've got to be up fairly early tomorrow so he can try phoning before we go out.

xylophone

We've got to be up fairly early tomorrow so he can try phoning before we go out.

Let us know if the early bird catches the worm (rather than opening a can of worms......):eek:

uncreative

A 13/14 tax return outstanding suggests there may be some late filing position to consider ( and potentially appeal?).

If it was me I would be getting a good acountant to help. You are a good 7-10 working days for the new passwords etc to be sent out to you.

My accountant files for me and they have an agent login for the gateway so i dont have to remember logins etc.. they handle it all. I actually ended up nearly even as some tax savings were identified that offset a lot of the fee.

I am also safe in the knowledge that my tax returns are being handled properly by a professional.

uncreative

remember any activation code is only valid for 30 days then expires so if you cant find it or its older than 30 days you will need a new one.

Savvy_Sue

uncreative wrote: »

A 13/14 tax return outstanding suggests there may be some late filing position to consider ( and potentially appeal?).

We don't think so: at that stage he was employed. They have only sent the request to file in July, he has 3 months in which to return it. We're confident he doesn't owe anything and I'll stay on his case until he gets it filed.

I've suggested he prints the form now so that I can work through it with him and start gathering bits of paper. I've already tracked down the tax statements from some of our bank accounts, for example.

uncreative wrote: »

If it was me I would be getting a good acountant to help. You are a good 7-10 working days for the new passwords etc to be sent out to you.

If it comes to that, we know where we could go, but despite the problems logging in this is something we're both confident we can deal with this.

uncreative wrote: »

My accountant files for me and they have an agent login for the gateway so i dont have to remember logins etc.. they handle it all. I actually ended up nearly even as some tax savings were identified that offset a lot of the fee.

I am also safe in the knowledge that my tax returns are being handled properly by a professional.

Well yes, but even if we did this, we'd still want to understand the workings presented by the accountant.

And as I said, for 2013-14 he was employed. No benefits, just standard rate taxpayer.

uncreative wrote: »

remember any activation code is only valid for 30 days then expires so if you cant find it or its older than 30 days you will need a new one.

I think it's unlikely he'll find an old one.

Savvy_Sue

His attempts yesterday failed, so he sent another message to HMRC and got this response:

If you cannot find a service you have previously enrolled for, you may have more than one online account and be logging in with the wrong User ID and Password.

Can you please log in using the User ID and Password that you used to enrol for the online service and you will then be able to access your account details.



If you do not have the correct User ID and Password, please phone our Online Services Helpdesk on: Telephone: 0300 200 3600

He's got a breakfast meeting tomorrow so it's likely to be Tuesday before he can phone them.

jimmo

Not sure this will help but I first registered on the Government Gateway in 2006. That was just to get a State Pension forecast and I have had no reason to access the Government Gateway since. However I have just checked and my Government ID and password still work but the page I get to after logging in seems to lead to so much gobbledegook that I would never get my mind around it.
Your DH’s UTR originated in 2001 or earlier. I am not sure that the facility to file on-line even existed then but when I retired in 2006 the vast majority of Returns were still the paper variety.
So, in “computer logic” it seems to me that your DH exists on the Government Gateway. He exists on HMRC’s SA system but there is no reason for any computer to think that the person that exists on the Government Gateway is in any way connected to the person that exists on the SA system.
That, I fear, is your problem but I don’t know the answer.
You have an SA 316 which imposes a 3 month deadline for filing an earlier year Return. I would do that in paper form (recorded and signed for) rather than continuing to try to do it on-line because that would be easier to defend if HMRC look to impose penalties.
As a separate matter I would be more worried about why they require a 2013/14 Return now. In my days at HMRC we only ever issued earlier years Returns if we had good reason to do so.

Savvy_Sue

Thanks jimmo

We think we know why the request for 2013-14 has been made, but the advice to file on paper is probably sensible.

It did occur to me (and I haven't had a chance to check this with him) that he might have registered on the Government Gateway with his previous employment, and that might be messing things up.

Onwards and upwards.

Savvy_Sue

We are heading towards a resolution.

On one of his earlier attempts at logging in, he sent another message to HMRC. Their reply was that he might have two sets of login details, so he should use the correct one and then he'd be able to get to self-assessment. So if he couldn't do that, he should phone.

This morning he managed to phone. It appears that when he registered as self-employed last September, instead of picking up that he was already registered on their system (not sure why but I can believe it), they did create a new identity.

They are re-sending details of the other identity, the one that's linked to his UTR.

Thanks for all your help. I shall continue [STRIKE]nagging[/STRIKE] gently reminding him to print out the form and start filling it in!