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HMRC has published Central Agent Authorisation Team Turnaround Times, warning that posted 64-8s should be sent to HMRC no later than 23 December, and applications for a Self Assessment registration should be sent by 20 December, so as to give CAAT sufficient time to process and/or issue the tax reference necessary in order to make a valid tax return online.

This is, of course, one of the busiest times of the year for agents in the run up to the filing deadline of 31 January.

TaxationWeb’s Mark McLaughlin observed,

“HMRC is saying it will take up to 2 weeks to process an online agent authorisation, but up to 5 weeks to process the alternative paper 64-8. I am struggling to see why it should take an extra three weeks to process what is essentially the same information and a relatively simple form, unless perhaps HMRC has set up separate teams for each process, and expects there to be many more paper forms. If that is the case, it seems quite unfair to penalise paper registrations, particularly when agents are trying to help people to get their tax returns in on time – something which HMRC has frequently said is much more important to them than raising penalties.”