Has anyone had their agent account suspended

Agent account suspension

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I have come to submit a tax return for a client using a third party software and was unable to as they said I was not authorised. I logged in to my government gateway to find out that my self assessment and corporation tax had been removed. When contacting HMRC they stated that the agent maintainer department had suspended my account. I have been trading under the same name in the same place for over 30 years so am a loss as to why they have done this now. I have spoken to several departments at HMRC and none of them are able to contact agent maintainer. Has anyone experienced this and know how to resolve it? I have read that they will send a letter to all clients advising that we have ceased trading which is going to cause a huge disruption and inevitable loss of business. After this year I'm not sure how much more my business can take. Any advice urgently would be greatly appreciated.

Replies (19)

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By Calculatorboy
04th Dec 2020 01:14

That sounds really shocking, hope it is resolved

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By mgandc
04th Dec 2020 07:44

It happened to us a couple of months ago. Received the letter which was a complete nonsense within about a week, answered immediately and got resolved within about 3 weeks.

Not much help i'm afraid but I did get an apology.

The problem was someone at HMRC searching HMRC's AML supervised list and we weren't on it so it got suspended. When they searched our institute's scheme it got reinstated within a few days and everything was back to normal.

It's all a bit ridiculous they don't seem to have a phone number or email address to resolve simple errors (on their part)

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the sea otter
By memyself-eye
04th Dec 2020 12:05

I think it's AML linked - a lot of renewals are coming up following the 6 month grace period.

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By free-rider
04th Dec 2020 12:51

I had this issue with SA service being suspended back in April 2018. My AML address as per HMRC database was not the same as actual trading address. Off course they claimed that they have sent letters in regards to this which we never received (surprise surprise). The whole matter took around 3 weeks to resolve in my busiest time of the year (April/May).

I`d advise to be on their backs for this - call, complain etc. It is a massive pain in the backside.

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Replying to free-rider:
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By Georgia123
04th Dec 2020 13:30

Thank you so much, who did you find was best to call? Everyone we have spoke to has said that they can’t do anything. We filed a complaint and they have come back to us this morning and said that we can’t complain to them about the problem and have forwarded the complaint on to somebody else.
Do you mind me asking if they did contact your clients?

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Replying to Georgia123:
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By mgandc
04th Dec 2020 14:38

Our clients weren't contacted. It was just an awkward few weeks not being able to file things or check things

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Replying to mgandc:
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By Georgia123
04th Dec 2020 14:44

Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate it

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Replying to Georgia123:
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By free-rider
05th Dec 2020 09:51

I complained to Agent helpline, ADR Team and also to Agent Maintainer Team. I will have a look through the old emails to see if can find any contact with them.

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Replying to free-rider:
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By Georgia123
04th Dec 2020 22:09

0

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By Refs1
04th Dec 2020 19:38

IT HAPPENED TO US, in late March and I was not happy. I kept getting fobbed off, and it was extremely stressful. I was promised call backs that never happened and kept being told to go to different departments and was going around in circles.

One evening (after three days without SA), around midnight decided to go on the attack and went hunting online for email addresses and copied and pasted the same email, that was very aggressive and firm to the point to senior people in HMRC. Make sure you have read receipt on your email.

They said it was AML issue. I said it would nice if they told me. They said they sent me a letter 5 months earlier that I never replied to - because I did not receive it.

They said they had me another letter that arrived 7 days after the matter was resolved. They told me about the letter and was told it was very important issue, so asked why sent it second class?

I was not happy!

TBF in the end HMRC sorted it quickly and efficiently then paid me £25 compensation.

You won’t get anywhere though by being nice to them.

PM if it helps.
Andrew

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Slim
By Slim
04th Dec 2020 20:30

Yes due to AML what an absolute ball ache it was took months and months and almost cost me everything.

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Replying to Slim:
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By Georgia123
04th Dec 2020 22:05

I’m sorry to hear, I already feel like we are going to lose everything. Can I ask how you managed to get this resolved?

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Replying to Georgia123:
Slim
By Slim
04th Dec 2020 23:06

The only thing I could do was write to them, they wouldnt accept calls, emails etc. So get a letter typed up and in the post along with your AML proof asap.

The bad news for me was they lost/ignored some letters and took ages to respond. Hopefully it wont be the same for you.

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By Giuseppe Colombi
07th Dec 2020 14:51

We have experienced the same problem just recently. It has taken 3 weeks to sort out. It is impossible to speak to anyone at HMRC, all dealings must be done by post by writing to the Agent Maintainer Team. We understand that it is either connected to our office move or to the AML supervision. Either way HMRC had been properly notified. It has caused a major disruption and I have lodged a complain with HMRC.

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Replying to Giuseppe Colombi:
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By Georgia123
07th Dec 2020 15:17

Thanks for your reply, did you manage to get this sorted? We have received a letter today stating this has happened due to not providing enough evidence that we are supervised for AML. However, we are registered with ACCA and have provided all the relevant information however they are saying this is not enough. Don’t really know what else to provide them with. Do you mind me asking who you complained to?

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Replying to Georgia123:
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By Giuseppe Colombi
07th Dec 2020 15:40

I did get it sorted. Following my resignation as a Director (I am 67) I was asked by the AAT to register with HMRC which we did and approval was granted by HMRC back in September. However, HMRC also wrote to us in August but I did not receive this letter. Middle of November this year they decided to discontinue the codes on the basis we did not reply to their letter. Had they checked our AML Gateway, they would have seen we were covered by HMRC. To avoid further problems, I re-appointed myself as a Director and the AAT sent immediately an email to the Agent Maintainer Team on the same day to explain we were covered by both AAT and HMRC. Someone at HMRC is particularly active without checking online records. I wrote a letter of complaint to the Area Director but no reply yet. I have also sought legal advice. I am concerned that out of 300 SA clients, at the moment we can only see details for 3 SA clients. Unless all clients' details are restored we will find it difficult to provide a good service. We can of course now file both SA tax returns and Limited Companies tax returns, but I am hoping that gradually our full list of clients will be restored on our online gateway. It was very stressful, but we have kept going and I have explained the problem open to one client at least.

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By BrianL
07th Dec 2020 15:59

And I would send a copy of your story to Jesse Norman, MP, who is the Treasury Minister responsible for HMRC and to your MP. The more often MPs hear about these issues, the greater the chance of change.

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By BrianL
07th Dec 2020 16:01

Wikipedia has the full address, title etc.

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By BrianL
07th Dec 2020 16:01

Wikipedia has the full address, title etc.

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