Getting someone to deal with HMRC for you

How to appoint someone

Before HMRC will discuss your affairs with someone else, they need you to confirm that you are happy with this arrangement. Sometimes it is possible to do this informally over the phone, however, you must be in the same room as the person who is helping you. The member of HMRC staff will want to speak to you directly to confirm who you are and that you are happy for them to discuss your affairs with someone else. There is some guidance on GOV.UK. However, normally this will only be permitted on one occasion, after that you will probably have to appoint an intermediary or agent (see below).

Please note that if you just require a form, or have a general query, there should be no problem for HMRC to talk to your representative about this – they should not be asked for a proof of identity or any other security questions.

Appointing a trusted helper

If you want your family member or friend to help you manage your tax online, they need to be registered with HMRC as a trusted helper. Please note that a trusted helper can only help you with limited online tasks, such as checking you are paying the right amount of income tax, checking or updating your personal tax account or requesting a tax refund. A trusted helper cannot prepare or submit a tax return on your behalf and you will still be legally responsible for your own tax affairs.

To register as a trusted helper, your chosen person will need to follow the instructions on GOV.UK. As part of the process they will need to provide details to prove their identity through the government gateway. This can be their existing government gateway ID if they already have one, for instance, if they already use HMRC online services to manage their own tax affairs. If they do not have a government gateway ID they will need to set one up before they can register as a trusted helper. 

Once your chosen person has registered as a trusted helper, you will then need to sign in using your own government gateway ID to accept them as a trusted helper on your account. If you do not have a government gateway ID or are otherwise not able to access HMRC services digitally, you should be able to authorise the trusted helper over the telephone by calling HMRC.

More information can be found on GOV.UK and on our page about personal tax accounts.

Appointing an intermediary

You can arrange for someone else to communicate with HMRC on your behalf by appointing what is called an intermediary. An intermediary can speak to HMRC on your behalf and help you to complete forms.

To authorise an intermediary to help deal with your tax, you need to write to HMRC. The letter to authorise an intermediary must include:

• your name and address
• your tax reference number (for example, your National Insurance number)
• the name and address of the person or organisation you want to authorise
• your signature

An intermediary is a kind of half-way house between dealing with things yourself and appointing an agent (usually a tax professional or accountant) to deal with everything for you. An intermediary will not have access to your tax online so if you would like someone to help you with this, you will need to appoint a trusted helper (see above).

Once this authority has been lodged and processed, you should be aware that HMRC may send correspondence to your authorised intermediary without sending a copy to you and vice versa. You should make sure that you and your representative discuss all correspondence received from HMRC with each other.

HMRC’s guidance on appointing an intermediary is on GOV.UK.

The appointment of an intermediary, trusted helper or even agent, as discussed above, will not be effective if you lose mental capacity. At that time, authority would normally rest with an attorney appointed by you under a power of attorney. If you had not appointed an attorney then, as described below, the court would have to appoint someone to deal with your affairs.

Powers of attorney

A power of attorney is a legal document that lets you appoint someone to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf. This gives you more control over who will make decisions for you if, for example, you have an accident or an illness and can’t make decisions at the time they need to be made (you lack mental capacity).

The appointment of an intermediary, trusted helper or agent, as discussed in this section, will not be effective if you lose mental capacity. At that time, authority would rest with an attorney appointed by you under a lasting power of attorney (or an enduring power of attorney, if made before 1 October 2007).

There are two forms of lasting power in England and Wales. There is a lasting power for health and welfare decisions and a lasting power for property and financial affairs. You can choose to make one type or both. The property and financial affairs lasting power will cover decisions about your tax affairs.

In Scotland you can make a continuing power of attorney for decisions about property and financial affairs and a welfare power of attorney for decisions about your health and welfare matters. In Northern Ireland you can make an enduring power of attorney and can restrict the areas over which it will operate, if you wish. There is more information on NiDirect.

You can only make a lasting (or continuing or enduring) power of attorney when you have mental capacity (and you have to be over 18) so it is sensible to put arrangements in place when you are able to do so in case you suffer from an accident or an illness that might later prevent you from making your own decisions.

If you lose capacity and have not made a lasting power of attorney (or continuing power of attorney in Scotland or enduring power of attorney in Northern Ireland) then it may be necessary for a third party to make an application to court to be appointed as your deputy to deal with your affairs. A deputy can only act under a court order (of the Court of Protection in England and Wales). It is generally significantly more expensive to appoint a deputy than to make a lasting power of attorney – and it can also take some time. A deputy for your property and financial affairs will not generally be required if you have previously made a lasting power of attorney for property and financial affairs provided the power has been properly registered and the attorney is able to act.

For more information on powers of attorney, including how to make one, see GOV.UK.

For more information on applying to be a deputy, see GOV.UK.

Dealing with HMRC if you have a power of attorney

HMRC have guidance on how to lodge a power of attorney with them, on GOV.UK. 

A power of attorney may be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. You can use a free service to check if it has been registered - Find out if someone has an attorney, deputy or guardian acting for them - GOV.UK.

If you find it is registered you can simply provide HMRC with the relevant access code provided by the Office of the Public Guardian. If you find that it is not registered, you would need to provide HMRC with a certified copy by post.  

As we understand it, a person acting in a capacity of attorney should not strictly be accessing the donor’s online tax information and can only deal with their tax affairs by telephone, post or webchat. 

This means that an attorney would not be granted access to a personal tax account or HMRC’s online services as there is a risk that information outside of the scope of the authority would then be available to the attorney. Instead, providing the right documentation is in place HMRC would disclose the required information to the attorney by post or phone (depending on local guidance) or act upon any documentation sent in by the attorney. This means that an attorney may not be able to complete an online tax return, and may need to send in a paper tax return, for example, or use a tax agent who can file a return using commercial software.

We appreciate this might make things more difficult – you may wish to ask HMRC if there are any other options for the particular tasks that you might need to do, when you are notifying them of the lasting power of attorney.