HMRC website - help please!

[SeeYouNextThriday]

Is the HMRC website really awful or am I being stupid?

I need to register as self employed, I spoke to someone on the self assessment helpline a while ago who said as I’m newly self employed I have until April to have this all sorted.

I have a unique tax payer reference number, I once found a page to register as self employed but it was rejected as the address was wrong (can only think this was because auto-fill kicked in), but I cannot find that page again, I just keep going round and round in circles. At one point I managed to create another gateway ID, no idea how.

I’m autistic and find these things incredibly stressful. I’ve just been on hold on the helpline for over an hour and had to come off as I was crying.
I’ve also tried to set up a web chat but it’s been waiting for over two hours.
Why is it so hard?

I hate being an adult!

Sorry, edited post as I misread about you setting up another account.

Yes I have an account, and a tax number.
I need to register the business/sole trader account and tried once but cannot for the life of me get to that same page, I go round in circles on the website.

I have two accounts now apparently!

Does anything here, help,

https://taxscouts.com/self-assessment-basics/register-as-self-employed/

It's a baffling website - I went round in circles trying to find a way to update my name after marriage only to find out you can only do it by telephone. To a specific number (not on the website) and with the 'right' data to prove who I am.
If you can get through to the staff on the phone they're really helpful - try ringing first thing in the morning for least queue time

Its been a while since I set mine up so someone may know better than me and I also found it difficult (if you mention you are autistic / struggling they can give you a special assistance category).

I needed a code through the post which once that stage was done it was fairly easy once I had done first tax return.

I thought it might, but it looks so straightforward and easy, and that has not been my experience at all!

What’s happening is I’m clicking add a tax, if it comes up with a self assessment option I click it and it slowly takes me to other questions which lead me back to the start.

Mostly at this stage though self assessment isn’t an option.

I’m certain it’s a me issue but I’m educated and just cannot do it 😭

I had to phone HMRC the other day and it took 50 minutes before anyone answered phoning first thing in the morning which is recommended and then the man I spoke to didn't know the answer either but he did get someone to call me back within 3 days from a specialist team who did know all the details.

I’m going to ring again in the morning.

I was on for ages, then the phone made weird noises, then I went back on hold, in total it was about 1hr 20 minutes until I broke.

When did you start being self employed? I think you can only complete a self assessment for the year before. Ie if you’ve only worked from April 2024 onwards, you won’t be able to complete the self assessment until after April 2025. So maybe registering and getting your unique number is enough for now?

https://www.access.service.gov.uk/login/signin/creds

This is the normal sign on page - here enter your username and password. If you can't do that it's likely its the stage that's before that where you get posted out a code.

It’s from before April 2024, I spoke to someone (miraculously) and they advised I need to sort this before April 2025.

Thank you, that’s really helpful. Sadly I’ve done this four times already today 😭

OP, it is absolutely not just you.

I'm pretty savvy with the Internet, but find their site so user un friendly.

It's like it was made in 1990 and never updated.

In fact, the whole hmrc system is over complicated

There are huge numbers of glitches in the HMRC website. It's not fit for purpose. I'm an accountant and have problems sometimes trying to register clients either for self assessment, or starting self employment or registering a partnership. Re partnerships, the system simply doesn't work, and hasn't for many months, so I just complete the forms manually and post them to HMRC. Sometimes have to do the same with self employment commencement too, especially if already registered for self assessment. Takes a lot longer, but at least it gets done eventually, though sometimes when 2 or 3 forms are sent together (same client, but different forms), HMRC separate them and some get lost so I have to send the "lost" ones again. Which is why I print them off twice, get clients to sign both copies, and initially send one set and then have another on file ready to send to replace any that they've lost. It's all a sodding nightmare.

The thing is that, sometimes, it does work. I do exactly the same thing, complete the same webpages on their website, and sometimes it goes through, other times it either automatically rejects or just takes you back to the start (or a different webpage) with no explanation as to why it's been rejected.

Look up CWF1 form as that's the one you need to register as self employed, if you have your UTR you are already registered for Self Assessment so don't need to do that again.

Ironically it used to be a lot better before it was "modernised" (i.e. dumbed down). There are still lots of older bits behind the new standardised screens which continue to work well. A lot of the new dumbed down forms are atrocious and take a hell of a lot longer to complete as they insist you go through page after page of answering questions, whereas the old pages still being used behind the scenes (if you know where to look or which are aimed at agents only) give you the full form on screen where you can fill it in, all on screen, all on the same form/page as if it was a blank form you were filling in by hand - far quicker and less likely to crash or be rejected.

Yes indeed, but it's a paper form, not an online form submitted via their website.

But I've had occasions where they've even rejected a CWF1 with a covering letter saying the client is already registered for SA!! Some of their staff don't know the difference nor reasons why the CWF1 needs to be submitted!

Don't know if you've already seen this page but might be helpful

https://www.gov.uk/get-help-hmrc-extra-support

I messaged them and sent my marriage certificate. They did it no problem which I was amazed at as it was a second marriage and I'd worked under my maiden name from 23-60! So it had changed twice

If you have to do a tax return, it may actually be best to pay an accountant with access to software to file for you
as whatever they submit will override the settings they have to what you need

I’ve earned well under £12000 so shouldn’t have to, but over £1000 so daren’t just leave it!

Edited to add - I realise now what you meant! In future I’ll probably do that, will be much easier!

I have clients who worked out that paying me was cheaper than sitting on hold to HMRC for three days !!