Working Together - Issue 11
Contents
- National Insurance Contributions
- Business By Telephone
- SA -Changes in Agent Details
- Telephoning Contact Centres
- Contact Centre For Welsh Speaking Customers
- 31 January 2003 SA Filing Date
- Copy Statements of Account
- ITSA Enquiries - Copy Opening Letters
- New Tax Credits
- Business.Gov
- E-statements - Update
- Contacting the Revenue by Post
- 2003 Employer Packs - Automatic issue to agents
- Better Guidance Programme (BGP)
- Can you help us simplify Capital Gains Tax?
- Capital Gains Supplementary Pages
- CT600 Return -changes for 2002
- Statutory Clearances -"One Stop Shop"
- Editorial
- Contact details & back issues
National Insurance Contributions
Colleagues from both the Revenue and the representative bodies on the Working Together National Steering Group visited the National Insurance Contributions Office (NICO) and the Longbenton Contact Centre in early October. In a very full and informative day, NICO and Inland Revenue Contact Centres outlined their work and answered the issues and questions that many agents had raised with them.
We thought Working Together readers would find it useful to see some of the issues raised in Q&A format.
When submitting authorisation forms to the Inland Revenue on behalf of a client, I am never sure where to send forms when there is more than one Revenue Office involved, or which version of the form is appropriate to whom.
In 2000, the Revenue introduced a new version of form 64-8 for customers to authorise an agent to act on their behalf. The new version 64-8 covers all Inland Revenue business. It is now possible to print a copy to complete from the Revenue Internet (see the forms section) rather than obtaining stocks through the usual channels. See Other Forms when the authorisation covered only tax and Class 4. The Revenue therefore introduced a new 64-8 authority that covered all its work.
When you have completed the form, send it to the Revenue Office that you are dealing with and they will pass on the information to other Revenue offices that need to know. You do not need to send copies to every office that you deal with.
Full details were contained in Working Together issue 1 & 2.
Why does the National Insurance Contributions Office often insist on another version of 64-8 from a client when the Tax Office has already held an authority for a number of years?
The pre-1 April 1999 version of form 64-8 covered authorisation for the Revenue to disclose only tax and Class 4 NICs information. When National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and Tax Credits (TC) work transferred to the Revenue, legal opinion suggested that form 64-8 should include this new work. If it did not, the Revenue could be breaching client confidentiality by disclosing NIC/TC information when the authorisation covered only tax and Class 4. The Revenue therefore introduced a new 64-8 authority that covered all its work.
NICO needs to ask your client to submit a new version 64-8 before they can disclose NICs information. An old version sent to the Tax Office, before 1999, will only cover tax and Class 4 NICs. Any new version 64-8s that you submit for new clients will cover all Revenue business and the Revenue will exchange this information internally to all relevant interested offices.
National Insurance Contributions forms - I am never sure where to obtain stocks of National Insurance Contributions forms. Asking the Revenue for the whole leaflet is excessive when you only require the forms contained in it.
The following National Insurance forms are available to print from the Revenue website:
- CWF1 (PDF 44K ) - Joint Notification of Self-Employment
- CA5601 (PDF 38K) - Application to pay Class 2 National Insurance Contributions by direct debit
- CA72A (PDF 96K) - Deferring employee Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for 6 April 2006 to 5 April 2007
- CA72B (PDF 104K) - Deferring self-employed National Insurance contributions (NICs)for 6 April 2006 to 5 April 2007
The application for exemption for liability for Class 2 National Insurance Contributions for self-employed people with small earnings (CF10) will also be available on the Revenue website shortly.
The National Insurance Contributions Office has returned forms to me that I have submitted on behalf of my clients. What can I do to prevent this from happening in future?
Many of the forms NICO receives from agents, including 64-8s:
- are only partially completed
- have been signed by the agent when it is the client’s signature that is needed
Please check that you have completed all the relevant boxes before you send us the form. Please also ensure that your client signs the form, not you on their behalf.
Dual Liability - During recent correspondence the National Insurance Contributions Office, implied that my client could still be self-employed and liable for Class 2 National Insurance Contributions when he was working as an employee and paying Class 1 contributions. My client is surely only liable for one type of contribution or the other!
It is possible for someone to have dual liability. Your client could work for an employer but still be self-employed as well. If this is the case then your client may be liable for both types of contribution depending on the amount of self-employed work that they do and how much they earn.
Would it be possible for the Revenue to publish the peaks and lulls of calls received in the various help lines based at Newcastle?
| Area & number | Opening Times |
Busy times | Quieter times |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self Employed Call Centre (084591 54655) |
8.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday |
|
|
| Helpline for the Newly Self-Employed (084591 54515) |
8.00 to 20.00 seven days a week |
|
|
| Contracted-out Pensions Helpline (084591 50150) |
8.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday |
|
|
| International Services Helpline (084591 54811) Outside UK (+44 1912254811) |
8.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday |
|
|
| National Minimum Wage (0845 6000678) |
8.00 to 18.00 Monday to Friday |
|
|
| National Insurance Registrations (084591 57006) Business Anti Fraud Hotline (0800 788887) | 8.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday |
|
|
Until 1998, the Revenue required any initial notification of, or changes to, information concerning an individual's personal tax affairs to be made in writing. But as the private sector gradually moved to making greater use of telephone technology to conduct their business, the public increasingly began to expect the same level of service from Government Departments.
As a first attempt to meet these expectations, we issued Statement of Practice 2 of 1998, which described the type of services the Revenue could provide to individual customers (calling on their own behalf), who wished to conduct their business by telephone rather than in writing.
So that we could build on this and test the demand for conducting even more business by telephone, from 18 December 1998 additional services were provided for the two million employees and pensioners of Scottish based businesses whose tax affairs were dealt with by Centre 1 in Scotland. For the first time, the services were also extended to authorised agents for whom we held a form 64-8. Details were set out in Statement of Practice 8 of 1998 which also said that the calls would be dealt with by the Revenue's first dedicated taxpayer Contact Centre.
The demand for these additional services and the success of the first Contact Centre means that we now intend to extend these services to a greater number of taxpayers. Details will be published in a new Statement of Practice to be issued within the next month or so. At the same time, we will expand the range of business that may be conducted by telephone. So, we will now accept certain information by telephone from authorised third parties, providing that their identity can be satisfactorily verified. We will also now provide specific limited information by telephone. Third parties will include authorised agents, relatives and any other person who has been authorised to act on behalf of the customer. We will attempt to verify the identity of the caller by asking a number of security questions.
As an interim measure, the extended services will only be available in our Contact Centres. It is the security afforded by Contact Centre technology that allows us to offer this facility. However, as the Revenue is committed to expanding the number of Offices which will be served by Contact Centres, all our customers should see the phased introduction of these improved services over a period of time.
Why do we ask security questions when we hold your client's authority for you to act?
We are aware that many of you who have called a Contact Centre are frustrated with our requirement to answer a number of security questions. But we have a legal duty to protect customer confidentiality and as the holder of the country's largest database of personal information, we are under constant attack from bogus callers. Our caller verification checks are therefore designed to help us ensure, as far as possible, that the person we are talking to is who they claim to be and that they have the appropriate authority to conduct the business.
To facilitate this process, it would therefore be helpful if you could have all your client's personal details to hand at the time of the call.
Further information will be published in a News Release which will accompany the new Statement of Practice, including details of the current Contact Centres who will provide the extended range of services.
Each Service Office, where responsibility is based on geographical boundaries, has a nominated Agent Maintainer. It is the Agent Maintainer's responsibility, only where the postcode of an agent's address falls within the geographical boundaries for which the Office is responsible, to
-
set up new agent records
- amend any details held on an agent record
It would help us to provide a better service to you and your clients if you would mark any correspondence notifying us of changes to your name, address or telephone number "For the Attention of the SA Agent Maintainer" in your firm's local Service Office. This will help to ensure your changes are noted on the SA system as quickly as possible.
Following very favourable feedback both from Working Together partners and individual agents, we are pleased to offer an extension to the temporary speed dialling facility for agents telephoning our Contact Centres. We will extend the speed dialling facility until 31 March 2003 and add two further priority numbers.
This facility was launched as a temporary measure to help those agents who had had difficulty in contacting us on the public 0845 numbers. When the Area telephone units (with direct dial numbers for different work within each office) and indeed all Contact Centres are fully operational and running as intended, there should be far fewer access problems and so this special service should not be needed.
You may already be aware that our busiest times for calls are on Mondays and on the days that follow a Bank Holiday. It would be helpful if you could try to avoid contacting us at these times. Please only use these special numbers if you have an urgent issue and are unable to get through on the usual 0845 lines. The numbers are for agents' use ONLY. Please do not pass these numbers to your clients.
| Taxes Contact Centre phone numbers |
Old Service Office name |
New Service Office name | Agent priority access number |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Kilbride 0845 0703 703 |
Centre 1 | Centre 1 | 01355 358909 |
| Cardiff 0845 300 3949 |
Cardiff 1 Cardiff 2 Cardiff 3 PD2 Pontypridd Merthyr Tydfil Brecon Pontypool Newport |
South Wales Area | 02920 324008 |
| PD1 | PD1 | ||
| Bangor Colwyn Bay Porthmadog Rhyl Welshpool Wrexham 1 Wrexham 2 |
North Wales Area | ||
| Manchester 0845 300 0627 |
Irwell Trinity Deansgate Parsonage Regent |
Chapel Wharf | 0161 266 7007 |
| Portsmouth 0845 300 0628 0845 302 1400 |
Portsmouth 1 Portsmouth Maritime Isle of Wight Southampton Parkside Andover Winchester |
East Hampshire and Wight West Hampshire |
023 9270 3003 |
| Sunderland 0845 302 1414 |
Washington Ops LP34 LP10 Tees Valley Ops |
North East Metropolitan | 0191 541 1010 |
| Bootle 0845 300 3939 |
Bootle 1 Bootle Merseyview Bootle Maritime |
Sefton | 0151 471 3003 |
What type of issues can you raise with the Contact Centre?
Contact Centre advisers do not have access to your clients' paper records or files. The Contact Centres were designed to channel public calls out of local Offices and into specialist centres, where an extended service could be offered as an alternative to written correspondence.
- Personal details
- Changes in name/address/circumstances/phones numbers/appoint an agent etc.
- Employment details Changes in employment/works numbers etc
- Deductions Ongoing claims to deductions (when original claim has been made in writing)
- Personal allowances
- PAYE Calculations Calculating liability, issue of assessments with underpayments, arrange the issue of assessments with overpayments
- Expenses Fixed expenses, professional subscriptions, Trades Union subscriptions (where appropriate), repeat claims to travel and other necessary expenses of employment
- Employee Benefits Car, fuel, medical insurance, etc. Where a benefit is partly for work purposes or shared with other employees, details may be requested in writing.
- Non Employment income Small amounts of, say, gross interest
- Self Assessment Returns Amend accidental omissions, make corrections (within time limits), amend personal details, some employment details, deal with claims to repayment or coding adjustment (where not requested on the original return) and claims to reduce payments on account.
What type of issues should you raise with the Area Office?
More complex issues will continue to be handled by the Area Office - this is the Service Office. Over time, as the Area reorganisations bed down, each Area will write to its agent community to outline any new contact details, including where direct dialling is available. Use these numbers if you have a more complex query.
We are mindful that the likely increase in traffic on the priority access lines does not adversely affect our other customers. We will be doing all we can to maintain the level of service to all our different customers on all our Contact Centre lines.
Contact Centre For Welsh Speaking Customers
The Welsh Language Act places a duty on the public sector to treat Welsh and English on an equal basis when providing services to the public in Wales. For a number of years, Inland Revenue Wales has provided a Welsh language service but has done so from a number of locations. The new Contact Centre will provide a single point of telephone contact for Welsh speaking customers throughout the UK who prefer to talk to us in Welsh.
The Contact Centre team comprises 12 fluent Welsh customer advisors who will provide a dedicated Welsh telephone service from 8.30 until 17.00 Monday to Friday with an answering system for calls received outside those hours.
Inland Revenue Wales currently provides a full service in Welsh, both oral and written, to 5000 customers. It is expected that some Welsh speaking customers will continue to correspond with the Department in English but will exercise their preference to talk in Welsh to one of our customer advisors in the new Contact Centre.
The Contact Centre's telephone number is 0845 302 1489.
31 January 2003 SA Filing Date
Inland Revenue Enquiry Centres (IRECs) across the country will be open until 8.00pm on Thursday 30 January 2003 and Friday 31 January 2003 to receive last minute Tax Returns and payments.
The statutory filing date is 31 January 2003 for Returns issued at the normal time. Any Returns received after that date are late.
-
Our offices are obviously not open 24 hours a day, but some have letterboxes that are accessible from the street. We will assume that any Returns which are found in office letterboxes when we open them on Saturday 1 February were delivered on 31 January 2003 and therefore filed on time.
- Any Returns which we know were received after midnight on 31 January (including electronically filed Returns) are late
Following the Special Commissioner's decision in the case of Steeden v Carver, we do not charge a late-filing penalty for Returns received up to midnight on 1 February, even though these Returns have been filed late.
Again, our Offices will clearly not be open at midnight. We are arranging for letterboxes to be cleared on the morning of Sunday 2 February. We will assume that any Returns found in an Office letterbox on the morning of Sunday 2 February 2002 were received before midnight on 1 February.
-
Returns assumed to have been received on 1 February have been filed late (and so, for example, the "enquiry window" will be extended to 30 April 2004) but will not attract a late-filing penalty.
- Any Returns which we know were received after midnight on 1 February are late (and so, for example, the longer "enquiry window" will apply) and a late-filing penalty will be charged.
NB: Not all of our offices have letterboxes which are accessible in out of office hours.
Previously, when you have requested a copy of an issued Statement, or details of the latest account information since the previous Statement was issued, we were only able to send you screen-prints of the pages on the SA system. The different layout and inclusion of information which was only of internal interest, apart from looking unprofessional, often led to difficulties with interpretation.
We are pleased to announce that we have now introduced a new local print facility which allows us to produce, in all but a few cases, a far more user-friendly version of copy statements and the current accounting position (known as a 'TSS Statement').
The TSS Statement design reflect,s as far as possible, the layout of a printed statement, enabling both agents and Revenue staff to see information presented in the same way. A 2-line 'free text' space has also been included for staff to add short messages.
ITSA Enquiries - Copy Opening Letters
In issue 8, which introduced the Framework for ITSA Enquiries, we explained that opinion amongst agents seemed to be equally divided on whether enquiry opening letters should be copied to your clients. We proposed to copy the opening letter sent to agents, to their client, along with the S9A notice for an initial period of 6 months. We said that we would monitor and review the response after that.
Now that that period has ended, we would very much like to hear from
you with your views, by the end of February.
See Contact details are below.
In April 2003 Working Families' Tax Credit (WFTC), Disabled Person's Tax Credit (DPTC) and Children's Tax Credit will be replaced by two new tax credits: Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. These new tax credits will provide support to a wider range of people through a single framework.
To receive these tax credits customers need to claim using either the new tax credit claim form (the TC600) or visit the website to make a claim on-line. Customers can claim for either or both of the new tax credits on one claim form.
Existing WFTC or DPTC customers are likely to qualify for the new tax credits. They will receive a claim form through the post. When they receive the form they should either complete it and return it straightaway, or use the Inland Revenue website to claim on-line. The website contains comprehensive guidance on completing the form. If they receive a renewal claim form for WFTC or DPTC this should be completed as usual.
The amount of tax credit due is based initially on the customer’s income for the year 2001/2002 (joint income in the case of a couple making a joint claim). If the customer is an employee, they will need to keep the P60 for their tax credit claim. If customers are self-employed, we need to know the income figure that they put on their Tax Returns for 2001/2002.
The Revenue will write to all those who submit a claim to tell them whether or not they qualify for tax credits. If they do qualify, we will tell them the amount that will be paid. The earliest they will hear is January 2003 and, if they are eligible, payments will start in April 2003.
The changes were flagged in Employer's Bulletin (September 2002) and the comprehensive guide to paying tax credits with wages will be revised shortly.
For Agents Representing Individuals
At present, for tax credits, agents can only provide information for the person for whom you have authorisation to act, through the form 64-8. This means that where you act on behalf of an existing customer who has a partner or spouse, and that person wishes to claim the new tax credits, you can only provide information relating to your customer and not the partner.
This process is currently under review and we will keep you informed of any future changes. If you have any issues or concerns about your role in tax credits please contact Working Together. contact details are below
Business.gov is a new joint initiative between the Revenue, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Office of e-Envoy and Customs and Excise. The aim is to make it easier for businesses to use and understand government services. It is being designed from the customer's point of view and eventually should become a one-stop shop where businesses can access all central and local government services.
The first stage of Business.gov was introduced in October 2002. It gives people starting up in business as self-employed, access to clear and useful information on regulatory requirements and tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs). The information can be accessed via the new 'Life Event'called 'Working for Yourself' on the UK Online Internet site and the 'Starting up in Business' area on the Revenue's site.
Customers will also be able to complete the self-employed registration form (CWF 1), NICs Direct Debit mandate (CA5601) and application for exception from paying Class 2 NICs on-line and print them out to send in by post in the same way as for the current clerical forms.
The UK Online entry point will be via the 'Life Event' section reached from the Home Page, then selecting the event 'Working for Yourself'. The UK Online pages will contain information for those thinking about starting a small business or self-employment that is not specific to the Revenue. It will also provide information to those already in business working for themselves. The pages will link to various government sites including links to the Revenue.
The 'Starting up in Business' pages currently available on the Revenue's Internet site have been amended to make the information more accessible to customers. The content has been directed to help people starting up in business as self-employed, understand what they need to know and do. Support and guidance is also provided on the site to aid customers in completing the forms to register as self-employed with the Revenue.
There are two Revenue Helplines specifically aimed at providing assistance to self-employed customers
| Helpline for the Newly Self-Employed | 08459 15 45 15 |
| National Insurance: Self-Employed Helpline | 08459 15 46 55 |
In the Register of Issues (see item 3.4) and issue 9 of Working Together we referred to providing taxpayer’s and their agents, who have registered on the Government Gateway, with the facility to view SA Statements of Account, and payments and liabilities, via the Internet.
We are pleased to say that development work is well under way to providing authorised users with the first of these aims, that is to view issued Statements on-line. We are planning to introduce the full facility in 3 phases as follows:
Phase 1. Statements issued from December 2002 onwards will be made available for taxpayers and agents, who are registered on the Gateway, to view on-line. We are looking to release this functionality in spring 2003.
Phase 2. For statements made available in Phase 1, an enhancement is planned that will enable the user to view the Statement in a number of different layouts, for instance, by year. This enhancement is planned for release 3-4 months after the introduction of Phase 1.
Phase 3. We are looking to enhance the facility so that authorised users will not only be able to view issued Statements, but see the latest accounting details and view in detail individual liabilities and how payments have been allocated. We will provide you with an update of progress on this major enhancement in late 2003.
Further details, such as how to access the new facility, will be published near the time of release of phase 1.
Contacting the Revenue by Post
We are aware that many agents feel strongly about our apparent inability to handle all correspondence efficiently and the knock-on effect to the service we provide. As part of a wider look at our main channels of contact with customers, we are undertaking a fundamental review of contact by post. This review is just one of the ways of focusing on action to improve our performance.
We are currently reviewing how we manage correspondence from our customers, concentrating on written communications and receipt of forms (though not PAYE/SA returns). We would like your help in ensuring that this review reflects the issues accurately and completely and identifies possible solutions.
People predominantly contact us by telephone, but all customer groups write to us, agents in particular. We want to find out not only why people communicate with us in the first place, but also why they choose this method of contact above the others. We need to establish the views and requirements of all our customer groups and identify reasons for any dissatisfaction with the current service. We also have to take into account the overall drive to electronic services.
If you have any views on current (or future) contact with the Revenue by post, we'd be pleased to hear from you. We would especially be interested to the answers to questions below:
1. What do you write to the Revenue about?
2. Why do you write (rather than use other channels)?
3. What would you most like to be able to do, either electronically or over the phone, that you can't do now?
4. What would encourage you to write less?
5. What postal contact from the Revenue could be eliminated/avoided?
6. How could the effectiveness of the post channel be improved?
The Review will also be looking at the Revenue's internal postal processes to ensure that we deliver an effective and improved performance. Please e-mail your comments to lyn.falkner@ir.gsi.gov.uk. or send them by post to her at BQS Review of Contact by Post (WT), Inland Revenue, 6N, South West Wing, Bush House, Strand, London WC2B 4RD by 20 December.
2003 Employer Packs - Automatic issue to agents
Agents have been complaining that they receive too many unwanted packs from us.We have listened to the complaints and we are taking further steps for 2003 to reduce the number of Employer Packs issued automatically to agents.
After much consideration, and with the prime objective of cutting down on waste and inconvenience, we have decided to issue 5 packs to each agent who would normally have automatically received more. If your firm needs more copies, they are available on request, as individual items or complete packs, from the Employer's Orderline.
If you find that five packs are still too many, tell your Revenue Office who can amend the appropriate record.
Automatic issue to employers
As part of our 'targeted mailing policy' there will be 3 mailings in February 2003: -
Employers who have placed an order with the Orderline will be sent: -
during the period 3 to 14 February
-
A personalised "flyer", Employer's Bulletin issue 13 and Employer's 2003 CD-ROM , followed by
during the period 17 to 28 February
-
A full Employer's Pack.
Employers who have not placed an order with the Employers Orderline
since the issue of last year's Pack. (February 2002)
during the period 10 to 21 February
-
A "Minipack" consisting of a personalised "flyer", Employer's Bulletin issue 13, order form, annotated P11/P14 showing relevant changes and Employer's 2003 CD ROM.
Revenue Offices should continue to be advised of any changes to employer records for which they are responsible.
Better Guidance Programme (BGP)
The Inland Revenue has established a three-year programme of work, Better Guidance, to run for 3 years to 2005 to improve its guidance material.
The Programme will liaise closely with identified stakeholders across the Revenue because guidance material, in whatever format or channel, needs to be clear, consistent, accurate, up to date and easy to access.
The complexity of our products and the size of our product range mean that it is impossible for the Revenue's customer advisers to know about them all in detail. Yet traditionally our approach to providing advice has been to train our advisers to diagnose the customer's problem and classify the solution based on their personal knowledge of our products.
The priority for 2002/03 is to set up a new guide for Revenue customer advisers. We will also undertake a review of Revenue leaflets and work on a number of strategic forms.
In due course the Revenue will consult practitioners. We want to make it easier for the Revenue's customer advisers to find the right guidance quickly, to help them deliver a better service to all our customers.
Can you help us simplify Capital Gains Tax?
We all know that Capital Gains Tax (CGT) can be a complex tax. In June 2001, as part of the Enterprise for All announcement, the Chancellor launched a public consultation on whether there were worthwhile, good value for money ways to simplify CGT within the existing policy framework. In addition, the Corporation Tax Policy Group in Somerset House worked through ideas with the CGT Review Group of representative bodies - some of the bodies represented on Working Together are also on the Review Group. As a result, the Chancellor announced a CGT simplification package in the 2002 Budget.
The Revenue has not stopped looking at ideas to simplify Capital Gains Tax and continues its discussions with the CGT Review Group on policy issues. But we do not wish to look only at policy issues. Can you help us simplify our CGT procedures?
Of course we have already had some feedback about CGT through Working Together and you'll find it in part 7 of the Register of Issues. Are there any other issues about our procedures, forms, guidance (for practitioners and public) and advice that you'd like to raise? What is it about CGT Returns, computations, etc that you find complex? What is not clear? What works well and what could be better? For example, are there particular areas where the boundary between the two sorts of taper relief, business assets and non-business assets, is not clearly explained?
Also, we modified the CG Pages of the Return to provide for more information to be included and hence cut down on the number of enquiries. Have we got the right balance? Is it sufficiently clear when there is no need to complete the pages?
We would be grateful for your suggestions for changes we can make to simplify CGT procedures without undue fiscal or administrative cost. We are focusing on CGT for individuals, trustees and personal representatives (we are not looking here at the taxation of companies' gains).
Please let the Working Together Team have your views and suggestions by the end of December. See Contact details are below
Capital Gains Supplementary Pages
Capital Gains Supplementary Pages are frequently received by the Revenue indicating that the computation of the gain is net of a particular relief but no claim is attached to the Return. The notes on Capital Gains, section 7, point out that some reliefs are given automatically but others have to be claimed.
Where a relief is to be claimed in the Return, the normal route would be to include the claim in column G on Pages CG2/CG3, spilling over if needed into the additional space on Page CG7. Care should be taken to include all details necessary to constitute a valid claim.
In a few cases the Helpsheet contains a claim form. Looking at the Helpsheets for the year ended 5 April 2002:
-
IR290 (PDF 288K) Business asset roll-over relief
- IR298 (PDF 287K) Venture capital trusts each contain a claim form. Use of these forms is optional but a claim made in another manner (e.g. on an attached sheet of paper or on Page CG7) should give all the same details
- IR295 (PDF 316K) Relief for gifts also contains a claim form. Use of this form is mandatory
- IR297 (PDF 304K) does not contain a claim form but points out that to claim EIS deferral relief the claimant must use the claim form attached to the EIS3 certificate received from the company.
Even if a claim is made in a form attached to the Return, an entry should be made in column G. The guidance on completion of column G can be found in the Notes on Capital Gains at page CGN5.
CT600 Return -changes for 2002
Copies of the revised print of the CT600 Return form are now available from the CTSA Orderline by telephoning 0845 300 6555 (or fax 0845 300 6777). It can also be downloaded from the Corporation Tax area of the Inland Revenue website where there also is additional information on the new items for 2002. Two new Supplementary Pages CT600H (for cross border royalties) and CT600I (supplementary charge for ring fenced trades), are also available. The CT600E for Charities has been amended to include reference to Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs).
As this is a reprint of CT600 Version 1 and not a new version, some of the box numbering is out of sequence and some box numbers (113,161 and 170) are missing altogether. Although this makes some people uncomfortable, it is the least expensive way to make the changes both for the Revenue and for software providers. As the CT600 (2001) was very 'crowded' on some pages, we have increased the number of pages from 12 to 16 to improve the appearance and usability. This has also allowed us to include some extra notes on the face of the form where we think these will be helpful.
For the present, and provided all items that a company needs to complete are there, you can continue to use any print of form CT600 for any accounting period after 1 July 1999. However any company claiming any of the new reliefs, or affected by any of the new tax measures operative from 1 or 17 April, 1 October 2002, or any other date specified by Finance Act 2002, must use the 2002 print, and not that for 1999, 2000 or 2001.
Notes against boxes 73 and 74, Construction Industry Scheme deductions, on pages 7 and 11, and note 13, make it clear there are no deductions against CT after 5 April 2002.
In response to many requests we have added boxes so that companies can tell us if they do not want us to make 'small' repayments of either £20 or less or any other figure they propose. Such overpayments will be set against other existing liabilities or carried forward to a later accounting period.
Any feedback on design issues is very welcome.
Statutory Clearances -"One Stop Shop" the information held in this article is no longer current
Since April 2002 we have been carrying out a pilot exercise to evaluate new ways of handling some statutory clearance applications (see Working Together Issue 10). We have implemented these new procedures in stages with demergers, purchase of own shares and S707 clearance applications being integrated from last April. What this has meant is that only one single application is necessary where more than one of these clearances was required.
We have now been able to extend this approach to include Capital Gains clearances and at the same time we are including the clearance arrangements introduced as part of the new Intangible Fixed Assets provisions in paragraph 88 Schedule 29 Finance Act 2002.
The following revised arrangements will apply from 1 November 2002.
Where clearance is required under any one or more of the following provisions:
- S215 ICTA 88 (demergers)
- S225 ICTA 88 (purchase of own shares)
- S707 ICTA 88 (transactions in securities)
- S138 (1) TCGA 92 (share exchanges)
- S139 (5) TGGA 92 (reconstructions involving the transfer of a business)
- S140B TCGA 92 (transfer of a UK trade between EU member States)
- S140D TCGA 92 (transfer of non-UK trade between EU member States)
- Para. 88 Sch. 29 FA 2002 (Intangible Fixed Assets)
then you should send a single letter to the Business Tax Clearance Team at the London addresses given below, no extra copy is required as the same person will deal with each of the clearances asked for. A single response will be given covering all of the clearances asked for.
Please make clear at the top of your letter what clearances you require. Only the section number as shown above is required.
Your application should be sent to:
| Non Market Sensitive | Market sensitive |
|---|---|
| Mohini Sawhney Fifth Floor 22 Kingsway London WC2B 6NR |
Ray McCann Fifth Floor 22 Kingsway London WC2B 6NR |
Email applications: send to: reconstructions@gtnet.gov.uk
Fax Applications: send to 020 7438 4409
Please note the following:
1. We acknowledge only those applications that we do not expect to deal with within a few days of receipt.
2. You should telephone Ray McCann on 020 7438 6585 before you email or fax market sensitive information.
3. If you fax or email your application do not send us a hard copy.
4. For emailed applications please show clearly whether you want an emailed reply otherwise we will send it by post.
5. We regard information that could affect the price of a stock market quoted company and information concerning the financial affairs of well-known individuals as sensitive.
For information on "One Stop Shop" and other clearances see One Stop Shop
Working Together is a partnership with the CIOT, ICAEW, ATT, ACCA, ICAS and AAT. Although the material in this publication obviously reflects discussion and consultation with these bodies, the Revenue is solely responsible for its contents and for the views expressed in it.
To download from our featured area, see Back issues. If you would prefer a paper copy, please write to or e-mail the address below. Working Together is covered by Crown Copyright. There is no objection to firms copying the publication for their own use. Anyone wishing to re-publish Working Together or extracts more widely, should write for permission to
Greig Rattray
Working Together Team
5S South West Wing
Bush House
London
WC2B 4RD
or e-mail: Greig.Rattray@ir.gsi.gov.uk.
