Company incorrectly marked 'dormant' by HMRC

Company incorrectly marked 'dormant' by HMRC

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I have received a letter from HMRC this morning stating that they've marked my company as being dormant.  This is despite the fact that a few weeks ago they received, and acknowledged, receipt of a CT600 showing trading activity.

Having called the HMRC office in question to ask where the 'dormant' notice had appeared from, they were wholly unhelpful - apparently, they just have a note on screen from an officer saying the request had been processed.  When I asked if I could be told where the request had come from and/or be issued with a copy of it, I was told it would have come from a company officer or authorised Agent - I explained that I am the only officer, and there is no authorised agent (being a firm of accountants ourselves!).  The telephone agent was unable to provide any further details, and asked that I write in to request the details.

I'm concerned that HMRC have been able to process a dormant request, but aren't able to share its source with the company.  I explained to the agent that I was concerned about potential identity theft - they were disinterested.  A second call to the same line to register a complaint was not much better - a complaint has been logged, but I can expect a response in 28-days.  Upon asking if there was any method for alerting potential identity theft/fraud - HMRC only seem to be interested if you think someone has underpaid tax/overclaimed a refund.

I appreciate I could sit back, merrily enjoy the fact that HMRC aren't expecting any CT returns from my trading company until 2019, however....!!!  I've raised the identity theft issue with HMRC more as a matter of principle than anything else - I haven't (as yet) been caused any loss but one does wonder what else might be lurking.

...this whole scenario can't surely have been caused by an officer finally processing the CT41G I filed some 18-months ago before trading commenced can it....!!!

Has anybody had a similar experience or got any suggestions on a more efficient method of rectifying things than having to rely on the 6-8 week mail process

TIA

Replies (1)

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By johngroganjga
30th Sep 2014 11:21

I think you are over-elaborating.  You have already spent vastly more time on this than I would have done.

You could either ignore the notice completely and just submit the company's next tax return when it is due, in the normal way.  That would perhaps have been my preference.

The pro-active response would have been to write to HMRC just to say that the dormant flag seems to have been set in error and will they please update their records.  It does not matter to your or our client whether or not they act on that letter, so there is no need to waste time chasing for a response.

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