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We used a solicitor to set up a LTD company for purpose of acquiring freehold for a small apartment block, myself and two co-directors / owners.
Yesterday I received a HMRC letter with activation code for corporation tax - addressed to the Solicitor / the LTD company.
I made a new Govt Gateway account and tried to use that code.
This gave me the error "this information does not exist for Corporation Tax, or it has already been used to request access to this tax or scheme".
I contacted HMRC who advised me to go back to the Solicitor because of an existing Gateway account linked to the company.
I explained the issue and requested the login details from the solicitor.
He sent me a Gateway ID with no password. I then asked him for the password or to reset the password, so that I can login and set myself up as an agent.
After some back and forth he said he cannot assist further as this was a tax issue and suggested I speak to an accountant. Even though this was clearly a HMRC / Gateway issue and totally separate to any actual tax issue.
He also stated he has been setting up companies for many years and never had this issue.
After several voicemails he returned my call and repeated his opinion it was a tax issue and he had never seen this before. There was much speaking over each other and the tone detoriated, at which point he said "we will have to agree to disagree".
When asked why the HMRC code was addressed to him he said he couldn't know without seeing the full letter, even though I had sent him a photo of half of it showing his name, name of the LTD company and the activaiton code.
I then went back to HMRC for the fourth time in two days, who once again said that there was already a Gateway account set up against the LTD company and that only one person was registered as an agent.
HMRC also said:
"It's an issue, that he has set up the account although he shouldn't have set it up if he had no intention of making you an administrator"
"He's set up the account so he is just being awkward because he's set up the account but he also needs to give you permissions to access it. So because he's not done that, we have to send an email to the Director."
"He's basically made a mess of it"
"yeah, that sounds like it, there's no reason why he's actually withholding that information"
I have now submitted a complaint to his firm because of the way he has handled this issue.
a) We were left in limbo with no way of accessing the HMRC Gateway in order to manage the tax affairs of the LTD company.
b) It was a simple 5 minute task for him to login, add me as an agent and remove himself. Or send over the password for me to do so.
c) His incorrect insistence this was an issue for an accountant (This just makes him look stupid IMO)
Just wondered what other people think of this issue and whether I do have grounds for a complaint.
The full transcript of the call with HMRC was provided to the relevant colleague
Yesterday I received a HMRC letter with activation code for corporation tax - addressed to the Solicitor / the LTD company.
I made a new Govt Gateway account and tried to use that code.
This gave me the error "this information does not exist for Corporation Tax, or it has already been used to request access to this tax or scheme".
I contacted HMRC who advised me to go back to the Solicitor because of an existing Gateway account linked to the company.
I explained the issue and requested the login details from the solicitor.
He sent me a Gateway ID with no password. I then asked him for the password or to reset the password, so that I can login and set myself up as an agent.
After some back and forth he said he cannot assist further as this was a tax issue and suggested I speak to an accountant. Even though this was clearly a HMRC / Gateway issue and totally separate to any actual tax issue.
He also stated he has been setting up companies for many years and never had this issue.
After several voicemails he returned my call and repeated his opinion it was a tax issue and he had never seen this before. There was much speaking over each other and the tone detoriated, at which point he said "we will have to agree to disagree".
When asked why the HMRC code was addressed to him he said he couldn't know without seeing the full letter, even though I had sent him a photo of half of it showing his name, name of the LTD company and the activaiton code.
I then went back to HMRC for the fourth time in two days, who once again said that there was already a Gateway account set up against the LTD company and that only one person was registered as an agent.
HMRC also said:
"It's an issue, that he has set up the account although he shouldn't have set it up if he had no intention of making you an administrator"
"He's set up the account so he is just being awkward because he's set up the account but he also needs to give you permissions to access it. So because he's not done that, we have to send an email to the Director."
"He's basically made a mess of it"
"yeah, that sounds like it, there's no reason why he's actually withholding that information"
I have now submitted a complaint to his firm because of the way he has handled this issue.
a) We were left in limbo with no way of accessing the HMRC Gateway in order to manage the tax affairs of the LTD company.
b) It was a simple 5 minute task for him to login, add me as an agent and remove himself. Or send over the password for me to do so.
c) His incorrect insistence this was an issue for an accountant (This just makes him look stupid IMO)
Just wondered what other people think of this issue and whether I do have grounds for a complaint.
The full transcript of the call with HMRC was provided to the relevant colleague