What To Do When HMRC AML Division Does Not Reply?

HRMC AML division received my 300GBP renewal fee on time and deregistered my company by mistake !

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My company is registered with HMRC AML since 2015, so each year I pay my renewal fee in advance and even though it takes them months to send a simple renewal approval, the process to renew is fairly simple. This year, I received the notice to renew my registration on Dec 2, 2021 and I made the payment to renew it on Dec 3, 2021. Again, this is so important to me that I make sure that I renew it before the due date.

After HMRC AML division received my payment, I received a first message and it was the "Renewal Approval" on Dec 18, 2021, I was so happy that it only took them a few days to process it.   However, it was short lived. In this renewal approval message, they mentioned that my registration was only until Dec 31, 2021. I thought it was a typo since I always pay my fee on time and my last year fee was also paid on time. And then, a few days later, I received another message from HMRC AML telling me that my company has been deregistered from the Supervised Business register for failure to paying the fee.

This is a pure nightmare. I contacted the AML Division, explaining my case. Someone read the email but did not reply. So today, I wrote another email asking them to reinstate my company in the register and to fix their mistake. I copied several people on this email, including Mr. Jim Hara and I sent a copy of the proof of payment of the 300GBP I sent HMRC on Dec 3, 2021.

I would like to know if this has ever happened to anyone else on this forum and how would you go about fixing it when HMRC AML Division does not reply? 

At this point, and if nothing is being done by this week, I intend to contact the Prime Minister's office to expose the issue and get their support because such mistakes should never happen. It is so difficult to find support from this division and it is extremely unfair.

Thank you for your answer, I appreciate it.

Replies (16)

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By SXGuy
24th Jan 2022 07:33

There have been people it's happened to.

I'm not one of those, in fact I paid my fee 6 months late and was still able to access my services. So it looks to be a lottery to who it happens to.

I wouldn't bother with the PM. Instead write to your local MP as they will action the issue a lot quicker.

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By Leywood
24th Jan 2022 08:45

If you had bothered to do a search you would have found the manny people it’s happened to.

I’ve listed all the emails you need to write to including ones that get a response

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By RetiredTax
24th Jan 2022 09:59

It is pointless contacting the PM . As recent reports show he never reads emails!!!
Set up a cheese & wine party and send him an invitation. He's bound to show up and you can then discuss this with him.

It must be frustrating for you. Hope you get a satisfactory result soon.

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the sea otter
By memyself-eye
24th Jan 2022 11:11

Does it stop you trading?
If not (and why would it) just ignore it - you paid on time and can prove it.

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Replying to memyself-eye:
Slim
By Slim
24th Jan 2022 11:19

They disable your agent account so yes it will stop you trading.

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Replying to memyself-eye:
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By Riverbank
24th Jan 2022 18:36

It does. Banks and business partners perform regular compliance checks on a company. When they see that a company is deregistered from the Supervised Business register, they blame the owner for it. Banks can close or freeze a bank account for that purpose alone. It gives the company such a bad image and it is affecting all parts of our operations. At no point Banks would think that HRMC can make such enormous errors because in the eyes of the world, a such administration is held with high standards. This is what many are up against and this needs to change. Again, if they had a decent customer support, ready to fix the issue when it happens, that would be fantastic but it is not the case. HMRC AML Division needs to be held accountable.

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By Whatisname
24th Jan 2022 13:01

It happened to us quite a few years ago. The timing was also similar to yours - December - with the SA filing deadline rapidly approaching. You cannot access your clients so you can’t file. Strangely, if I remember rightly, we could still access payroll.

Our solution was to buy a company that was about to cease practising and transferred all our clients to it and filed through their registration. Certainly not ideal, but we were desperate…

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Replying to Whatisname:
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By Hugo Fair
24th Jan 2022 13:11

Which shows the pure idiocy that you were forced to go through ... given that presumably the company you bought already had 'agent access rights' due to an earlier AML check that in fact was no longer valid once you acquired the company and were no longer using its staff or procedures!

C'est la vie ... although it increasingly feels like a nightmare.

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By bernard michael
25th Jan 2022 09:35

This chap was very helpful
V Dempster [email protected]

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By wob
25th Jan 2022 10:59

This happened to me last year, although it was largely my fault for assuming HMRC would remind me to renew as they always do! All fully resolved now thanks to the help I received on this forum - in particular someone posted a phone number that connected me immediately to a human being who could tell me what do to.

The only thing I'd add that isn't clear from you e-mail is whether you did actually renew, rather than just send the payment? You need to have renewed on the website so that they have an application to attach your payment to when it arrives.

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Replying to wob:
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By Riverbank
25th Jan 2022 18:17

Yes I did renew it from their website. I received a notification from HRMC on Dec 2, 2021 that it was time to renew my AML registration and I made the payment on Dec 3, 2021. I always renew my registration before the due date.

Thank you for sharing your testimony, I am so grateful for all the feedback I received from the forum, I found it to be very helpful.

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Replying to wob:
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By Elaine Longster
28th May 2022 00:12

Hi - I am not receiving the AML registration after paying the renewal in good time. It would be helpful to have the telephone number for the person to contact as you mentioned.
Thanks

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By Riverbank
16th Feb 2022 18:47

***UPDATE ON THE CASE***

About 2 weeks after I sent the emails, I finally received an answer from HMRC AML Division and a lady explained to me what happened. She was very kind, gentle and got into details as to what happened to my registration. Even though I paid the renewal fee, my application has been deleted because I did not go to through the application itself to update my data, even though no update was needed.

So I had to fill a new application and the fee that I already paid in December 2021 was applied to this application. HMRC recognized that it was a flaw in their system and that they failed me, so they sent me a letter of apologies and transferred my complaint to the Ministerial Office.

I received an email from this specific division and I was awarded 50 GBP by HMRC. On February 15th, 2022, I received a new message from HMRC AML Division and it was a “Renewal Approval” for the new application. Someone at HMRC was gracious enough to speed the process up and I am truly graceful. All agents went out of their ways to make sure they fixed the issue and took full responsibilities for their mistake.

As of today, my business is registered again as a “Supervised Business”. I truly thank everyone at HMRC for fixing this issue. I believe that many of the agents are overloaded with work and it is not their fault. We may want to address this issue directly with the head of HMRC. Hiring more agents in this department would be a blessing to many.

I want to thank everyone who helped me during this process and I also thank everyone on this forum for their advice and participation. I sincerely appreciate you.

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Replying to Riverbank:
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By I'msorryIhaven'taclue
16th Feb 2022 21:01

Good news that it's all sorted for you, and I guess Boris will be equally relieved to hear that you won't be petitioning him to intervene.

Rumour has it's he's rather too busy arm-wrestling his good friend Vladimir this week.

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Replying to Riverbank:
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By vicens32
21st Nov 2023 06:22

I know this thread was over a year ago, but I am hoping you can shed some light on a similar problem. We had paid the GBP300 renewal fee (which was banked) and sent the application. 6 months on, after a lot of back and forth emails HMRC finally confirmed they found the GBP300, but had not received the renewal form and asked me to complete a new one online through our HMRC login. However, there is no AML form anywhere when I log into our account. HMRC have still not responded to this question. Can you confirm where you found the form when you completed a new form. Many thanks!

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Replying to vicens32:
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By Leywood
21st Nov 2023 07:01
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