NBCG5500 - Dealing with applications: Clearances dealt with by specialist units
Across HMRC, there are a number of specialist business units (outside LBS, LC and VWET) dealing directly with business customers. These include Complex Personal Tax Teams. The Southend Clearances Team provides a central reception point for non-LBS clearances, including those where the subject matter is dealt with in a specialist unit. But for specialist unit clearances, this is a facility, not a requirement, and it is not intended to displace existing arrangements. So customers seeking clearance on an issue dealt with in a specialist unit may send the clearance directly to that unit rather than to the Southend Clearances Team.
If you work in a specialist unit and receive a clearance application directly from the customer or adviser, you should:
1. contact the Southend Clearances Team using the contact points at NBCG8700 so they can allocate a unique reference number to the clearance and capture basic details concerning the application. The following details will be required:
- your reference number
- the date on which the application was first received by HMRC
- name of applicant
- name of business
- the name of the specialist unit to whom the clearance was submitted (for example, ESSU)
2. work the clearance as normal; to include providing an acknowledgement to the applicant confirming receipt and the caseworker contact details
3. make a closure report (see NBCG7440 for further information) to the Southend Clearances Team when the clearance has been dealt with.
If a clearance is sent directly to Southend, the Southend Clearances Team will capture the application electronically and then email it to a named contact within the relevant specialist unit.
Where a specialist unit receives a clearance application directly from a business dealt with by LBS, the specialist unit should notify the CRM as soon as possible. As the relevant management information will be included in the statistics reported by LBS, specialist units should ensure that this is supplied to the CRM on closure. In this situation, there is no need for the specialist unit to contact the Southend Clearances Team for a reference number or to send then a closure report.
(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
