Why are HMRC writing to my home address?

HMRC Agent Services Account/MTD

Didn't find your answer?

I am a sole practitioner with a business name and address.  When signing up for an agent account I had to provide my own UTR and now for any MTD VAT clients HMRC are sending correspondence addressed to me personally to my home address.  In addition when any member of the team calls HMRC with regard to an MTD client and give the business address postcode during the security questions they are told it is incorrect.  HMRC have said there is not anything they can do about this but I find it ridiculous.  If I have to provide copy correspondence to a client I do not want my home address on it.  Do any other firms have this problem and have you been able to get round it. 

Replies (9)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By Matrix
11th Feb 2020 13:27

Call them back and ask them to remove your address or you will report them to the ICO. If you don’t want clients or employees knowing your home address then you are entitled to protect it. I have not come across this, but I work from home and haven’t had any MTD correspondence.

I would also check that your ASA has been correctly set up.

Thanks (1)
Replying to Matrix:
RLI
By lionofludesch
11th Feb 2020 13:39

Matrix wrote:

I would also check that your ASA has been correctly set up.

I'd do this first. Before I started throwing my not inconsiderable weight around with ICO threats.

Thanks (0)
Replying to lionofludesch:
avatar
By Matrix
11th Feb 2020 13:43

Yes sorry should have said. I am not a sole trader but do you know if your home address is on your ASA?

Thanks (0)
Replying to Matrix:
RLI
By lionofludesch
11th Feb 2020 15:34

Matrix wrote:

Yes sorry should have said. I am not a sole trader but do you know if your home address is on your ASA?

Like you, it's the only address I have.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By SXGuy
11th Feb 2020 13:36

When I signed up to an asa account I linked my utr but during the process it also asked for my organisation address which was my office address, and I've not had any issues with post.

Thanks (1)
avatar
By legerman
11th Feb 2020 16:54

Sounds to me like your personal UTR has triggered the link to your own address when it switched to MTD. Or are your AML details under your personal details?

I got a brilliant result when I switched to MTD. When I first registered as an agent I was a sole trader working from home. A couple of years later I moved into an office and traded under a Ltd Co, but I could not get the VAT bods to switch from my sole trader name and address to the Ltd Co name and address. When it went MTD in April they linked my AML details (which are under the Company) and it all got updated.

Thanks (0)
By SteveHa
12th Feb 2020 08:31

What address is your VAT registration at?

Thanks (0)
avatar
By NewACA
14th Feb 2020 14:10

You are not alone. Ihad (or possibly still have) the same problem.

I spoke to vat helpline and vat online services, and they both said to notify the CAAT (central agent authorisation team), so I wrote to them.

They wrote back and said the new ASA wasnt part of their brief. I called vat helpline again and they then said hmrc havent developed a way yet for agents addresses to updated on the ASA.

Another problem I had, which you may have too is that when a member of my staff called, because they wern't me, they didn't allow them to talk to hmrc about a client, as my asa had been linked to me personally!!

I think I managed to sort all this out by playing around with names and possibly addresses too inside the agent account by managing staff and changing the name of the asa accoint to my practice name etc. Staff have now successfully dealt with hmrc on behalf of clients for vat.

Since then, things seem to be ok.

I still personally use the old online agent authorisation, where the client gets a code in the post, as I understand the new digital way still has teething issues. I havent tried using the new digital authorisation process via the ASA account yet, maybe that will send emails to clients with my home address shown I dont know!!

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Zane
14th Feb 2020 15:13

Thank you all for your replies. Just an update. After much to-ing and fro-ing I got through to someone at VAT Online Services. They asked us to change the address on the personal account of the proprietor, wait 48 hours then call them back and ask them to de-enrol our agent account, wait another 48 hours then apply for a new ASA and the clients would be re-linked to the new account. Once all is ok on the ASA the proprietor can then go back into his personal account and change his address back to his home address. It really does seem such a palaver just to simply change an address. Imagine if a sole trader that does work from home moves, the poor thing would have to go through all of the above. HMRC also unhelpfully suggested that if the firm was to convert to a limited company we wouldn't have this problem because the ASA is automatically updated with Companies House data. So we called HMRC to ask them to de-enrol our account and they actually gave us an appointment for this. Earliest time is 10am on 18 February so on 20 February we need to apply again. No MTD VAT returns can be submitted during that down time.

Thanks (0)