stickinthemud

Hi All, I am a UK citizen, but my husband is a US citizen and we are moving to England very soon. He registered for Individual Tax Self Assessment SA1 through the HMRC website four months ago. They have still not posted or emailed him the UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference) number. They also never emailed to say they received the form.

We called HMRC, but without a UTR number or UK National Insurance number they insisted they could not pull up his information or application.

We went back to the same HMRC online registration site to start all over, but now you are blocked from filling out the form until you fill in the Government Gateway registration. But you can only register with them if you have UK identity like a NI, UTC number, or drivers licence. Of course my husband has none of these yet. And the deadline for registering for Self Assessment is Oct. 5!!

My questions please:
1. Is it really taking more than 4 months to get a UTR number from HMRC?
2. Is there any way that HMRC can find his application without a UTR or NI number?
3. Lastly...is there any way of bypassing Govt Gateway so you can just register for Self Assessment?

There must be many other non-UK residents experiencing the same thing. Any thoughts or information is greatly appreciated.
Sheryl

getoutofbritainquick

My wife and I could register for self assessment on the Government web site because it requested 2 out of 3 forms of identification, one was a UK passport the other was something like a recent credit card application for credit checks and the other was something to do with Northern Island. We had our UK passport but we’re turned down for a UK credit card by HSBC Premier bank despite their account saying they will transfer you Canadian credit history. So we couldn’t register in the site. However we did find a form we could print off and send in to them for self assessment.
Be warned many civil servants have not returned to work in the UK and everything is taking much longer to process. My son applied for his Provisional Driving License and the current processing time is around 10 weeks!

christmasoompa

5th October following the end of the tax year in which he becomes self employed. So if he’s not even in the UK yet, he’ll have until October 2022 to register.

HTH.

durham_lad

+1

plenty of time.

We moved to the UK in May 2016 and tax was not due to be paid until Jan 31st 2018. We had plenty of time to register for self assessment and get a UTR.

SanDiegogirl

+2 .....if they need a UTR number and/or NIE number and you have neither, then you'll need to wait until you're in the UK

TopNik

Hi Sheryl,

Firstly, you should check if you actually need to register for self assessment.

You can use this tool on HMRC's website to check each tax year:

https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return

Johnboyuk

Everything is slow with HMRC. It began when they all started 'working' from home because of the pandemic. I am trying to liquidate a solvent company and have been waiting over a year for them to clear my money. A big shake-up is needed IMHO. Maybe a tax accountant can help? In my experience, if you get a good one, they are not overly expensive and well worth the money you pay them.