Over the past few months, I have taken on a handful of new clients.
As usual, I have gone online and requested authorisation codes to act as their agent when dealing with HMRC.
Yet, there seems to be a delay in HMRC posting the letters out. Furthermore, I have a couple of clients who assure me that such letters have not been received at their end.
Was wondering if anyone else was having this issue, and if so, other than completing a paper 64-8, if there was any other way to gain authorisation.
Any suggestions would be greatfully accepted - thanks.
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Don't wish to be cynical but we have had a number of clients who have said they didn't receive letters. However, where we are the registered office, miraculously, the letters appear. A recent authorisation for corporation tax took less than a week and the VAT authorisation for the same client only a few days longer.
One client brought in a pile of documents just before Christmas. On going through the papers, guess what? There is an authorisation letter dated September - which he hadn't received!
I am sure that HMRC are at fault some times but our experience is that it is often the client. Some seem to have a phobia about brown envelopes.
I broadly agree with JP in that the codes eventually arrive - takes far longer for SA than CT or VAT though and usually well outside the stated period but am wary of people saying they never came at all. If its going to fail, it does it at the request stage which is a problem in itself - the VAT one is especially difficult for this.
64/8s are a bit hit and miss. Take a long time to be processed then often require intervention to add to your online services.
I
I've not had any problems.
I always check to see when HMRC have posted the number and then chase the client. They normally arrive in about 5 days
Cardiff
In the HMRC authorisation section against every client you've submitted an application for they will put a tick to say when the number had been posted
That's not been my experience - like most things with HMRC, that date has little to do with when they actually got around to putting it in the post. For SA, I have had them arrive 32 days after the request.
what do you need the authorisation fro - if its just checking SA details with HMRC the client can give them a call and verbally authorise your firm
only a temporary fix, so you'll still need to send 64-8's as well, but it should allow you to get some work finished