Rosamund West

HMRC please stop fobbing people off with links to technical support. The questions being raised are not technical but legal. We know how to use online services ourselves. The questions relate to how to do so on someone else’s behalf without having to pretend to be that other person. Please engage with the actual questions people are asking. Given that so many people ask the same questions surely you should realise that the answers are not obvious.

The link to technical support is broken. But I’m not sure it’s technical support that’s needed. More a ‘how to” guide. We can’t sign in as ourself as there would be nothing to distinguish our own tax from the tax of the donor whose affairs we are managing. So we must need to sign in as if we are the donor themselves? But in that case we are back to people’s questions about how to identify the donor. (I have in fact managed to get online to my mother’s account but I am just trying to help HMRC understand why it is confusing for people, Apologies to Peter Stott if this is not what he was asking.)

Thank you. I will try the online chat and/or send a letter with the tax return I am about to submit. But my original post was not only about my own experience but about the whole way HMRC deals with Attorneys. This is an issue which is only going to increase with our aging population, so HMRC really needs to have systems that cope. And it should be realised that many Attorneys are themselves elderly - for instance I am 72 and dealing with my 97 year old mother's affairs. We really do not need the added stress that HMRC currently causes. I am tempted to write to my MP about this (only it would take more time that I currently don't have). I hope HMRC will take on board the need for improvement.

I was amazed to find this forum and read everyone's frustration, as I have been having exactly the same issues! I sent a certified copy of a POA document to HMRC in January. In a letter dated April, but not received until June, they (incorrectly) disputed its validity. I replied immediately in June explaining why I thought they were mistaken and asking them a) to reconsider and b) to return the document. I have had no reply. I also sent an OPG access code so that HMRC could view the document online if they wished; the code was not used during its limited validity. I have, however, succeeded in getting my mother registered for self-assessment, so I am in the process of completing her 23-4 tax return which I shall return well within the 31 October deadline. (I had to request a paper form since I was unable to register her for on-line self assessment, in line with others' experiences above.) The notes to the self-assessment form say that if you have not previously sent the POA you should send it with the form AND IT WILL BE RETURNED WITHIN 15 DAYS!!! So why has my form been retained for almost 8 months now? I know my mother has underpaid tax and I am doing my best to sort out her affairs but instead of welcoming my efforts, HMRC seem determined to make it as difficult as possible. My mother is 97 so I wonder if it will all be resolved before she dies?!