Company Tax Return acknowledgement letter is no more....

TreadStone

In their wisdom, HMRC are no longer issuing the acknowledgement letter confirming receipt of the CT600 (CT620ACK).

This had the payslip on the bottom showing the client the amount payable.

I've recently come across a couple of clients unware that an amount was becoming due at the beginning of January because they haven't received this letter. They will have been informed of the amount earlier in the year but, clients being clients, conveniently forget this.

Does this mean that we are now expected to continually monitor and inform clients of their impending liabilities ?

HMRC are trying to "prompt clients to check CT Online View Liabilities and Payments (L&P)" where they can see their return details. None of our corporate clients use this.

Am I missing something or is this online view now the only way clients can find out for themselves what they need to pay ?

burg

I have found HMRC have been hit and miss with these in the past anyway.

I always advise clients via email of how much to pay. More often than not this is way before the payment deadline. I therefore explain to them there will be no reminder so they either need to sort something themselves to remind them closer to the time or they need to make payment early.

I can't rely on clients being able to log in or navigate HMRC website easily so I don't bother with it.

TreadStone

Clients can't be relied upon anyway when it comes to paying HMRC, especially corporation tax.

All I mean is that at least the paper acknowledgement included the amount payable. So at least when it dropped through our letterbox we knew the client had a copy too.

I've just sent out letters today for CT600's submitted after 16 September for 31 March year end, so tax becoming due 1st January.

Clients have been previously informed about the liability but I guarantee they'll be in touch saying they didn't realise it was due in a few weeks.

Just another example of HMRC pushing more responsibilty on agents in my opinion.

MarieNoelle

Yes, same feeling here. I have just sent a reminder. What is annoying is that the reference for the payment doesn't show on my agent screen so I have to explain to the client that they need to log in onto their account to see which reference to use...

MindTheGAAP

You should be able to see the payment reference on your agent screen if you click into the period.

MarieNoelle

Ah yes thank you just realised it was there all along!