Self Assessment Centre - what are your questions for HMRC?

I sent in a couple of 64-8s to CAAT at Longbenton on 2 Nov and am still waiting, that's 19 days, almost 3 weeks. Not good enough! Will have to waste time chasing them now. Why can't we fax them in the first place as often when they lose them they will accept a faxed copy?

The CAAT at Longbenton seem to be up to speed. I recently sent in a batch of six 64-8's and the new cleints were allocated to my online agency account within five days.

Furthermore repayments due to clients whose returns I have "filed by internet" are being repaid within 10 days.

Credit where credit is due, HMRC seem to have made major improvements in these two areas, and I for one applaud this. Well done HMRC.

We have been advised recently, by our IT consultants, to tighten up dramatically on passwords etc. due to the level of hacking now possible.

We have not heard from HMRC how secure online assessment services are in practice.

Could we have a detailed breakdown of how this is implemented at all levels and what if any is the fall-back position when it goes wrong.

Has it gone wrong for any of HMRC online self- assessment users?

What development and live observation for problems is in place?

We were recently advised at a Working Together meeting that the practice of supplying 64-8s to each department within HMRC had ceased and that one would suffice for all. This does not seem to be the case.

Last week we were unable to speak to the Tax Credits department in respect of one of our clients as they advised they held no 64-8 even though the local district has held such authority for some time. In addition the department refused to contact their colleagues in the local district to obtain authority/confirmation that a 64-8 was held and in fact were insisting we supply a fresh 64-8 for their purposes.

Could HMRC therefore clarify when and indeed if the practice of one 64-8 being sufficient for all departments applies from and whether all such departments are aware of this.

I have a problem especially with new clients in finding out about brought forward and carry forward balances being processed through PAYE codes. e.g. an underpaid balance from year 1 may be coded to year 3 and not appear in any of the correspondence/assessments relating to year 2. In year 2 you suddenly find the underpayment from year -1 which you didn't know about.
Why can't this sort of thing appear on the statements?

Julia, when the new tax credits system was implemented a new 64-8 was devised to also include tax credit authorisation by your client. If your 64-8 pre-dates this then tax credit authorisation will not have been given, how could it when it hadn't been invented. This may explain why a more recent 64-8 is required by the TC dept alone.

Can action be taken to reduce the substantial time taken by Bristol & N Somerset area in processing Tax Returns. The standard time is usually three months before action.

Response times for correspondence is also slow on many occasions.

Chapel Wharf is nearly as bad.