News Archive 2005
23 December
Christmas Stamps & VAT
In some parts of the country, some Post Offices have mistakenly been selling
Christmas stamps at the standard rate, VAT rate 1 on invoices.
22 December
HMRC will not be issuing receipts for hand
delivered SA Returns - Update 22 December 2005
The Professional bodies (i.e. CIOT, ICAEW, ICAS, AAT, ATT & ACCA) have
issued guidelines on their websites outlining what 'reasonable evidence' would
be. This guidance was published after discussion with HMRC.
16 December
Filing Arrangements for 2005-06
Employer's Annual Returns
We have now finalised the filing arrangements for 2005-06 Employer’s
Annual Returns. This is a short overview. You can find more details in Notes
for Software Developers and there will be more information in the February
edition of Working Together.
09 December
HMRC will not be issuing receipts for
hand delivered SA Returns
Thank you to all those who responded on the proposal for Enquiry Centres not
to issue receipts for SA Returns delivered by hand to local offices.
P11D(b) penalty notices issued incorrectly
We would like to apologise to employers and affected agents for the inconvenience
undoubtedly caused by an error in our systems.
28 November
Agent Priority Lines
Due to the reorganisation of Contact Centres the Agent Priority line numbers
for the following Areas have changed: East Herts West Essex, Beds & West
Herts, Oxon & Bucks, Cambridgeshire and the Scottish regions.
18 November
Working Together – Issue 23
Issue 23 of Working Together is now available.
30 September
Online filing 2004-05: tax-free payment letters
Employers with fewer than 50 employees are entitled to £250
tax-free if they have sent their 2004-05 Employer's Annual Return online themselves
or via a payroll agent or bureau.
We will send a tax-free payment 'letter' to whoever sent us the Return online. If you are registered and activated for PAYE Online for Employers – Internet, and we have authority from your client to send information to you online, we will send the 'letter' to your Secure Mailbox. The 'letter' will go to your Secure Mailbox even if you chose not to get in-year notices (for example P6s) online when you activated the service.
The 'letter' will show the employer's name and PAYE reference and explain how the tax-free payment can be claimed. Please pass this information on to your clients.
We will send you an email with a link to your Secure Mailbox, if we have your email address, telling you that you have secure mail.
Where we do not have authority to send information to you online, the letter will go to your client's Secure Mailbox if they have registered for PAYE Online for Employers – Internet. Otherwise they will get a paper letter.
Letters sent on paper have been going out daily without delay, but we have not issued the online tax-free payments letters as planned, and there is now a backlog to go out. We are sorry that the online letters were not issued at the right time. We will start issuing the online letters on 3 October and hope to get all of them out by early November. We recommend that you check your Secure Mailbox regularly to see if letters for any of your clients have arrived.
29 September
Withdrawal of Electronic Lodgement Service
HMRC Online services have made the following announcement regarding the withdrawal
of ELS.
19 September
Including non-PAYE income in the code
The Regulations were rewritten for April 2004 with the intention
of making them clearer, but we have always included amounts of non-PAYE income
in PAYE codes as an administrative convenience - it avoided a separate tax
bill for many individuals. Whenever a customer objects, we remove the amount.
(For clarity, a customer cannot ask us to remove amounts that are PAYE income
- for example benefits in kind). Some customers actually prefer to have all
the tax due taken via PAYE and in some cases this avoids the need to complete
a return. Where the customer objects to the coding out of non- PAYE income,
we make a note on the record which should mean that we don't attempt to code
out non - PAYE income in the future. The customer (or agent) should not have
to contact us every year.
So, if the customer tells us he/she objects to non- PAYE income being included in the code, we will remove it. Additionally when we include non-PAYE income in the code, we will write to the taxpayer. As a result of feedback through Working Together, the acting agent should also receive a copy of this letter.
15 September
Large Processing Office Working Together Meeting: Email
Window
In Working Together issue 21 we told you that 2 weeks prior to each Large
Processing Office (LPO) Working Together meeting an email window would be
opened. The email window has now been opened on a permanent basis. This facility
provides an opportunity for all agents who have dealings with the LPOs to
be involved in the consultation.
13 September
Working Together Meetings – West
Wales
Details of West Wales Working Together meetings.
30 August
Issue 22 of our publication for tax advisers,
Working Together
is published today.
25 August
Online filing 2004-05 - Update August 2005
19 August
Working Together
Employee Benefit Trusts, National Insurance Contributions and County Court
Action.
16 August
Working Together (PDF 229K)
Tax advisers are invited to an open forum in Cardiff.
29 July
Handling agent authorisations (64-8s) – update 28 July
A large number of additional staff were allocated to the Central
Agent Authorisation Team (CAAT) last month and the turnaround time for processing
forms 64-8 has subsequently reduced to 10 days. We expect it to reduce even
more.
Agents can help reduce that turnaround time further by sending most of their 64-8s direct to CAAT rather than their local tax office. At the moment around 75% of all the forms which should go direct to CAAT are being sent by agents to local offices. These then have to be passed to CAAT for processing, which creates a delay. We realise that agents may have been doing this as they were concerned about the reported delays at the CAAT, but this should be less of a problem now that the backlog is being cleared.
If agents know the UTR (and NINO if appropriate) for their clients, it would be extremely helpful if they use them on the forms as this will help us process the information more quickly. We are finding that many 64-8s are being submitted without these references on them.
11 July
Advisory Fuel Rates for Company Cars
Working Together recognised the business benefits to both employers and HMRC
if the Advisory Fuel Rates for company cars were more representative of the
average fuel costs. As a result of representation from Working Together, HMRC
has now reviewed and introduced revised Advisory
Fuel Rates
1 July
64-8s for expatriate and Complex Personal Return clients
We understand that some agents may have read the message on HMRC What's New
- Delays in Agent Authorisation update 17 June 2005 in isolation. This was
a continuation of the instruction issued in WT Publication 21- Agents Authorisation
which set out 64-8s which the Central Agent Authorisation Team (CAAT) do not
handle. We are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience caused. As per the
original instructions:-
CAAT is currently unable to access records for expatriate taxpayers and those normally dealt with by the Complex Personal Return Teams. If the 64-8 is for a client in either category, please send it to the usual Expat or CPR Team. Here is a link to the article mentioned above in Working Together 21
23 June
2005 Tax Return - Box 18: A Reminder
Question 18 ("Do you want to calculate your tax and, if appropriate,
Class 4 NIC and any Student Loan Repayment?) was changed to incorporate box
18.2B for total Class 4 NIC due. This figure was previously requested on the
Self-Employment, Partnership and Lloyds Underwriter Pages in boxes 3.96, 4.25
and 3L.94 respectively.
From 2003-04 onwards, these boxes should only to be used where there is an
adjustment to profit chargeable to Class 4 National Insurance Contributions.
22 June
Working Together Meeting
Large Processing Office
21 June
Tailored telephone contact for agents – June update
DX (Document Exchange) Service
Due to insufficient usage for the cost involved, HMRC has decided to remove
the DX (Document Exchange) Service from a number of former IR offices. The
offices who currently retain the DX service are shown on the attached list
and their use of the service is under regular review to ensure that it remains
value for money. If an office is a DX user, you will usually find the reference
printed in the letter heading. Some offices included on the current list are
likely to withdraw from the services and any changes will be notified.
20 June
Delays in agent authorisations –update 17 June 2005
The Central Agent Authorisation Team (CAAT) has now been running for over
two months (see What's New entry of 1 June). The team has had some teething
troubles, mainly because it is receiving more 64-8s than was originally forecast.
The current turnaround is now 17 days. We are very sorry for the inconvenience
this has caused to you and your clients.
17 June
2004-05 PAYE overpayments
We have started to process the information from 2004-05 online Employer's
Annual Returns onto our computer systems. That process is taking longer this
year, because of additional testing of our new computer system for dealing
with employers' Returns. Once the Return Information is posted onto our systems
we can identify those employers who have overpaid PAYE and investigate how
the overpayment happened.
27 May
Working Together - Issue 21
The latest issue is now available (See Note Below)
We would like to draw your attention to the Agents Authorisation Article.
Please note the amendments below which unfortunately are not reflected in
both the paper & PDF versions. Apologies for this.
1. Page 2, Heading, " Filing Employer's Annual Returns 2005/06"
Should read " Filing Employer's Annual Returns 2004/05"
2. Page 3, Heading "Practicalities of Filing 2005/06 Returns" should
read "Practicalities of Filing 2004/05 Returns"
3. On Page 3, second para of the section headed 'FBI 2 scrapped for online
submissions', the final sentence should be:
"Agents registered for PAYE Online can send their client's Returns without
an FBI 2 by following the 'Filing only agent' link on the PAYE for Agents
page"
10 May
2004 - 05 Tax Returns - Boxes 18.2B and 3.96
A message was issued on 3/6/04 advising changes to 2003 - 04 Tax Return, Question
18 which now incorporates a box 18.2B for total Class 4 National Insurance
Contributions (NIC) due. Reports at the time & subsequently from HMRC
colleagues suggest that although this reminder was issued and an article published
in WT Issue 16 that some agents continued to complete Box 3.96 wrongly by
continuing to enter the figure for Class 4 NIC due. Box 3.96 is now for, "Adjustments
to profit chargeable to Class 4 National Insurance Contributions".
We would draw your attention to this again as this format is retained for
2004 - 05 Tax returns.
28 April
Short Tax Return – Company Directors
The short tax return (STR) was issued nationally this April. Unfortunately
a system error in the selection criteria has led to the form being sent inappropriately
to some company directors, who would not normally qualify for a short tax
return.
22 April
Agent authorisations (form 64-8) –
an update
We told you on 22 March that we were setting up a single team (Central Agent
Authorisation Team - CAAT) to handle the processing of most new agent authorisations
(forms 64-8) for individuals, trusts and partnerships. That team is now set
up and the early progress is promising.
20 April
Working Together 20 - Corporation Tax Article is now available.
18 April
A new Statement of Practice for Business by Telephone with Contact Centres enables customers and their authorised agents to make a wider range of claims and notifications by telephone. Further information is available.
06 April
Paye Online For Employers - Secure Mailbox Closure
05 April
Sending Employer's Annual Returns for
2004-05
This is advanced notification of an article which will appear in the next
edition of Tax Bulletin. The article mostly concerns filing Employer's Annual
Returns online. However, it does have important information about sending
complete and part Returns on paper.
22 March
New arrangements for agent authorisations (form 64-8)
Dealing with agents is an important part of the way the Revenue does business
and we want to make sure that those processes run smoothly. We know that the
processing of the agent authorisation form 64-8 is not going well and we apologise
for the frustration this has caused
11 March
Tailored telephone contact with agents–
a pilot (Complete item)
Now that the Taxes Contact Centres have been operating for some time, they
are hoping to offer agents a better, more tailored telephone service. The
Taxes Contact Centres handle telephone calls on taxpayer-specific SA and PAYE
issues; they are different to the general help lines on particular heads of
duty, such as stamp duty, IHT or tax credit issues. Working Together was able
to secure a series of 'priority lines' at the Taxes Contact Centres for agents
to use in urgent cases so that they could 'jump the queue', but we know that
you want a more tailored service.
Many agents contact the Taxes Contact Centres (IRCC) for the same basic queries as other callers, which are resolved by IRCC advisers at the first point of contact. However, a large proportion of queries from agents require a more detailed knowledge of tax types, which differentiates them from other customer groups. In these cases, a query is not answered at the first point of contact but is passed either to a technician within IRCC, or is transferred to an Area for specific advice...
3 March
Enhanced Online Services
for Agents
New information is now available.
1 March
Working Together Issue
20 Correction
In the article "2004-05 Tax returns and Return Guides" we said "Please
allow sufficient time for your order (initial, plus top up) to be received
before contacting the Orderline. Please note that the SA Orderline will not
be able to process any orders for Return Guides after 6 April 2005."
It should read before the 6 April 2005.
18 February
Working Together - Issue 20
The latest issue is now available.
