UTR code & self employment

Gustav37

Hi,
I am currently having a tug of war with HMRC to obtain a UTR code for my online business.
I trade on eBay, so after a few weeks of (successfully) running the shop since 16th Sept, they asked me for verification of the business in the form of the UTR code. They set me a deadline of 7th Nov, so I phoned HMRC.
I was told by them that it would be with me by 27th Oct, so I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought I would meet eBay's deadline.
By 28th Oct there was still nothing, so phoned HMRC. The rep told me I should not have been given such a precise deadline, and that applications are taking anything up to 3 months. Thus, I would miss eBay's deadline.
This I did, so eBay on the 7th Nov removed all the products I have for sale.
Today I phoned HMRC again, as I am now very out of pocket and eBay is holding on to all the money I've made so far. The woman told me that I wouldn't have my UTR code until 27th April next year.
After a battle of wills, she said she would forward my application to the priority team, who would contact me by the 7th Dec. This is just contact as far as I'm aware, not for the code. She told me if I had applied online, it would be easier, but I didn't have a P60 so naively thought posting all the forms would be enough. I have to post a form for my partner and the business as a whole anyway, and it's this latter letter I need to submit to eBay.
I did start a website, but have had to close that down after only a week, due to not being able to be paid by them either (the site I created it through and Paypal both wanted a UTR code too). Luckily, I got a full refund.
Has anyone else encountered such a long drawn out process, and if so is there any advice? eBay's next step will be to suspend my shop, and I have so much stock ready to go. It is tempting to shut everything down, but I'm guessing eBay will keep my money, so am going to hold off. Problem is I don't know how long this will go on for.
Thanks

Marcon

Gustav37 said:

Hi,
I am currently having a tug of war with HMRC to obtain a UTR code for my online business.
I trade on eBay, so after a few weeks of (successfully) running the shop since 16th Sept, they asked me for verification of the business in the form of the UTR code. They set me a deadline of 7th Nov, so I phoned HMRC.
I was told by them that it would be with me by 27th Oct, so I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought I would meet eBay's deadline.
By 28th Oct there was still nothing, so phoned HMRC. The rep told me I should not have been given such a precise deadline, and that applications are taking anything up to 3 months. Thus, I would miss eBay's deadline.
This I did, so eBay on the 7th Nov removed all the products I have for sale.
Today I phoned HMRC again, as I am now very out of pocket and eBay is holding on to all the money I've made so far. The woman told me that I wouldn't have my UTR code until 27th April next year.
After a battle of wills, she said she would forward my application to the priority team, who would contact me by the 7th Dec. This is just contact as far as I'm aware, not for the code. She told me if I had applied online, it would be easier, but I didn't have a P60 so naively thought posting all the forms would be enough. I have to post a form for my partner and the business as a whole anyway, and it's this latter letter I need to submit to eBay.
I did start a website, but have had to close that down after only a week, due to not being able to be paid by them either (the site I created it through and Paypal both wanted a UTR code too). Luckily, I got a full refund.
Has anyone else encountered such a long drawn out process, and if so is there any advice? eBay's next step will be to suspend my shop, and I have so much stock ready to go. It is tempting to shut everything down, but I'm guessing eBay will keep my money, so am going to hold off. Problem is I don't know how long this will go on for.
Thanks

The UTR is for you personally (not your business as such). Have you registered for self assessment, because if you have, you'll already have a valid UTR.

If you've not applied online for self assessment, it is worth doing so to see if that might just yield a faster response: https://www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment/self-employed

AskAsk

as said above, you need to register for self assessment online and they will send you the UTR code.  i don't remember how long this takes though unfortunately.