Help! My registration with HMRC failed

When you register for self assessment with HMRC (whether as self-employed or someone renting out property) you are hoping to get a unique taxpayer reference (UTR) through the post quickly and smoothly.

However, it's often not as easy as this, as HMRC's systems for supporting registration are not great. They're old, involve a lot of manual steps and got to different places. HMRC know our views on this - and we hope that the systems and processes get better.

These are the common problems and what to do. We're here to help.

You're already registered

In that case, resubmit the form by selecting the option to get reminded of your UTR.

Not receiving a UTR

Normally you should receive a UTR within eight weeks.

But we have had untied users who have waited many months, and we have been told of instances where it's taken more than a year.

In this case you'll have to call them - see How do I contact HMRC?

They may say that there was no record of the application - this is likely because it hasn't yet found its way to the right system.

Address mismatch

We often get address mismatch errors - you will need to try other previous addresses in that case (you can put this in the form on page 2 - you may need to change the date you moved to where you live now so that it is quite recent - that way the "previous postcode" box will appear).

The untied form says you've already completed the form

We have checks to make sure you don't double submit. But sometimes you need to. In this case, open the form in a private window and it should work. Let us know if you have any problems,