"Business is set up for VAT with another Government Gateway"

I recently ended service with my accountant who were submitting my vat returns up until now. I now need to submit my own vat returns but am unable to set that up on the HMRC website. Whenever I try I get the error message "Business is set up for VAT with another Government Gateway". The accountant has told me they have removed my company from their Agent VAT account. I don't know if there is some time lag before I can do so and am unable to get through to HMRC to check. Any suggestions? I am running out of time to submit my next return.

Your business should have its own government gateway. I'm a tax agent, what happens with a client is we link our agent gateway to the clients gateway, we do that by going onto our agent gateway and inputting the VAT number/registration date of the client, that then generates an email link which we cut/paste and send to the client. The client then logs into their own gateway using the link we have sent and the client than "approves" us as agent and then we (agent) are linked to the client's gateway, this allows us to file VAT returns for the client. My point is, you will have your own gateway, we cannot link our agent gateway to nothing, we have to link it to another gateway, the client cannot "authorise us as agent" unless the client is logged into their own gateway. Now it might be that the Accountant set that client gateway up for you - certainly when I do a VAT registration for an overseas business, I create a gateway for them and share the login details with them so they always have their own access to their own gateway but by me setting it up, it just helps them out as English may not be their first language and HMRC website can be daunting for overseas businesses. The fact the agent has linked their account (and now delinked) would suggest you do have a gateway, question is did the Accountants set it up or did you/someone at your business? You can call the HMRC IT VAT Helpline https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/vat-online-services-helpdesk and go through the security measures to prove your identify and then ask if HMRC can unlink the VAT account from the "other" gateway. But I'd go back to the Accountant first and double check what they have said, they may think that you just wanted confirmation they unlinked their account, but what you are asking for is "did you create a government gateway for me, if so, what are the login details", if they say they never set up a gateway for you, then you'll have to call the helpline as per above link.

Jay that is super helpful, thank you so much!

Hi. Please can you contact our Online services Helpdesk on 03002003701 to resolve this for you .

Thank you .
 

Thanks HMRC Admin for posting, but I have been completely unable to reach HMRC by phone today. It just says you are too busy (after various options etc) and then cut me off. Fortunately I was able to solve my issue using the advice of the previous poster.