Digital handshake issues hamper CGT reporting

Another example of a new online process not being properly tested before it is rolled out.

I will be holding a meeting with a client where we will do it together in the next week or so unless there is another lockdown. I managed to talk a client through doing it herself but have yet to see what the questions are. Luckily in my area the broadband is OK.

Do a paper return... once you've done the CGT Comp it takes less than 5 mins to fill in.

Probably a lot less hassle to just do it on the year end SA return and take the penalty and small amount of interest on the chin.

Yes, I keep getting the issue about the Northern Ireland driving licence with clients, and I am in Scotland. They have a UK licence and it won't accept the UK licence number - as it is expecting a Northern Ireland number. Several clients have then gone through the credit check questions (as the only option left) and failed - because they can't remember when things happened. I just wonder if this will ever get sorted and how do you feed back to HMRC to get it changed?

You can't even do it for the taxpayer . I hold a LPA financial for my father who is 90 and in a care home. I need to file a 2020/21 tax return on his behalf. I have set up an online account for him, selected the Income Tax option to register for, entered his UTR, his date of birth and his NINO which matches all data held by HMRC.
However we now need to prove who he is with a digital signature. You can guess the rest, he doesn't hold a passport, nor a UK driving licence.
Well done HMRC yet again.

The whole process is a mess. As Kevin highlighted, if we are already authorised with a 64-8, CGT is included in that authorisation, so why do we need another.

And the inability of the authorised agent as above to manage the process from start to finish without the client having to jump through their own hoops is equally baffling. Bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake.

If HMRC want people to comply, they should design their systems in such as a way as to facilitate compliance with the minimum of fuss.

But, as I've said frequently, HMRC IT systems are a holy mess, with no joined up systems.

For example, why does it take up to 72 hours for an address change to show? Most computers in the world (including Casio calculators) can work at near real time speed. Do HMRC only have a front end, with a little man in the background printing off and running around to update things?

This is more about the failure of HMRC to realise that most tax payers want nothing to do with them.

Most do not want a digital account. They most certainly do not want to waste an hour or more of their time setting one up to deal with a single transaction.

Ongoing they do not want to receive texts or emails to tell them to log onto it to read a notice which might or might not be relevant. Given all the scams about then unless its on paper many clients will ignore.

Clients just want to pay someone to make it all go away.

Trying at every turn to get clients to set one up has not worked so far, and is unlikely to work in the future. All I see with my clients is they end up with lots of the things set up at different times which then makes the whole thing fall over when the account they set up 4 or 5 years ago is now obsolete interferes with a new attempt to set one up.

No doubt HMRC approach will be - stop processing the paper forms.

We know they are doubling down on this by insisting on this for starting to file for MTD rather than just blanket authorising existing clients to agents or simply setting them up for us.

Where is/have been the OTS?

Simplification of taxes is as much about the administration of taxes as it is about tax law.

Indeed, simplifying the administration of taxes is far easier and more easily achievable, with a minimum level of input.

If the OTS - or government as a whole - cannot even simplify such things, there is no chance that Making Tax Diabolical will go as evisaged by the tunnel-visioned numpties pushing it.

Quick and easy wins first, please.

This just shows what a shambles HMRC are at implementing new online systems - poor communication with the general public and abysmal attempts at running any meaningful, comprehensive trial/pilot sufficiently in advance of going live. Not all estate agents and solicitors were even aware of the new 30 day CGT requirements yet they are at the front line of property sales - and without them warning clients how many taxpayers contacted their accountants within the 30 day period, let alone unrepresented taxpayers managing to get it all sorted in time?

It doesn't exactly bode well for MTD for Income tax - a project affecting a far greater number - where is the HMRC advertising campaign (now) on that or are taxpayers supposed to be psychic?

It is high time those at the top of HMRC are told what really goes on down here at grass roots level - but who is going to get the message across when the likes of Jim Harra so arrogantly ignore our input and assume they know best?

Even agents are falling foul of the digital handshake. I now have to go through full authorisation every 12 months just to refresh my tax software connection to HMRC. All I need is a Northern Ireland driving licence (I live in the west country and always have), credit checks (OK I can guess my way through that maybe), and/or a passport (I am one of these odd people who do not travel overseas so do not possess one). I guess I will have to obtain a passport (or move to NI) just to service my clients. So is a passport now a business expense?