HMRC backflips on helpline closure announcements
HMRC has backflipped on this week's announcement that long periods of shutdown for self-assessment and VAT helplines,...
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Signification progress has been made by HMRC in relation to agent access to client VAT and employer PAYE accounts.
In relation to VAT accounts, the HMRC released on 9 October the functionality to allow agents to view clients’ VAT payment history, building on the view VAT returns service that was previously available.
The service is available in the agent services account (rather than the older agent online services portal).
The service is available for all VAT clients where appropriate agent authority is in place, whether or not they are signed up to MTD VAT, subject to the VAT record having been transferred from the old VAT database to HMRC’s new platform.
In regard to employer PAYE accounts, HMRC is inviting more agents into the service that allows them to view payments and liabilities for their employer PAYE clients.
The service is being rolled out, and invitations have so far been issued to agents with up to 5,000 clients (the list of employers being used by HMRC is from October 2018). The invitations are presented when an agent signs into PAYE online for agents and there is a daily cap of 700 invitations.
Further news on extending the service to the largest agents will be released on 25 October and by the end of the month HMRC expects to remove the need to confirm that the agent acts for a client before they can see the liabilities and payments data.
Agents have reported some issues with the changes mainly being unable to access the data for particular clients because the system shows (the agents believe incorrectly) that they have “limited authorisation” (FBI2 only) rather than full authorisation (FBI2 and 64-8 or online authorisation).
The data that the agent sees is now identical to the information that is displayed to the client in their business tax account, but it is not the same as that visible to HMRC contact centre staff.