Authorisation Of An Agent (Info)

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Agents are a type of personal acting body. However, for tax credits purposes they cannot act in the same way as other types of personal acting body, for example, appointees. An authorised appointee can act fully on a claimant’s behalf, and can receive payments on their behalf. An agent

• Can act on a claimant’s behalf

But

• Cannot receive payments for them

Claimants can appoint an agent to act on their behalf for some or all matters in connection with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). For example, a self-employed claimant may authorise an accountant to act as their agent, for their tax affairs.

Note: An agent can belong to various bodies or organisations, for example, solicitors and accountants.

Before you can disclose information to a third party the claimant must provide written authority allowing you to do so. This is usually done using form 64-8 (Authorising your agent) but you can also accept any form of written authority from the claimant provided that it sets out clearly what you can disclose and to whom and is signed by the claimant.

From October 2005 HMRC agents have been able to submit an authority to act on a claimant's behalf over the Internet.

The Central Agent Authorisation Team (CAAT) deal with these requests and they are responsible for updating all the HMRC business streams with the agent's details.

For tax credits purposes, the CAAT will record the agent's authority to act in the Application Notes field in Function CAPTURE APPLICATION and in the Household Notes field in Function MAINTAIN HOUSEHOLD NOTES.

You must always check the Application Notes and Household Notes fields to see if an agent has been authorised and the agent's identity verified, before replying to requests for information. If they have been authorised and verified send any correspondence directly to the agent. You do not need to copy correspondence to the claimant.

Important information: If one of the claimants in a joint claim requests an agent to act on their behalf, you can only accept and discuss information relating to that claimant. You must not divulge any information relating to the other claimant without consent. If we only receive one signature on a form 64-8 for a joint claim we cannot discuss the claim at all

Note: If you receive correspondence regarding a deceased claimant, after considering the agent authority the correspondence should be forwarded to the priority one team.

If you receive an authority from an agent to act on behalf of a tax credits claimant, you must forward it to CAAT (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)