A number of agents have reported problems with their Anti-Money Laundering registrations and payments to HMRC.

However, following EYE’s story yesterday, HMRC has now been in touch with the specific agent concerned in our story to reassure him.

HMRC has also given EYE guidelines, which are at the bottom of this article.

Somerset agent Chris Willey had received a letter telling him that if he did not pay, he faced the possibility of trading illegally and criminal prosecution.

This was despite repeated efforts on his part to make the payment requested.

After EYE spoke to the HMRC press officer responsible for this area of the business, we sought permission from Willey and two other agents for them to be contacted by HMRC.

Willey received a phone call yesterday afternoon and was told he would not be ‘harassed’  further, and would be advised how to make the payment.

Yesterday’s story prompted both posts and direct emails to EYE’s editor.

In one case – also forwarded with permission to HMRC – the agent was told that their application to register for AML supervision was rejected.

The main reason was that HMRC kept asking for the names of two directors to be added as responsible persons.

However, both directors resigned last year, as HMRC was told back in April and again this month.

We have, again with the agent’s permission, forwarded a third case and will forward more if our readers suggest this proves necessary.

Please let EYE know if you continue to have difficulties and we will, but only with your explicit permission, co-operate with HMRC to try and get a resolution on our readers’ individual cases.

However, this will hopefully not prove necessary as HMRC has now issued this advice through EYE:

• If customers are concerned about the length of time being taken to approve their application or renewal, they should check their online account messages. We may have asked for some action or given instructions on how to pay their approval check fee. While the online account shows the status as ‘pending’, customers are able to trade and carry out business activities.
• If customers have been asked for an approval check fee we will provide details of how to pay in a secure message in their anti money laundering supervision (AMLS) account. This will include the amount, the payment reference number, and a link to the HMRC online payment service. Reminder messages won’t include this information so they’ll need to read the initial message for this.
• If customers are having difficulty logging in to their account, they should use the same Government Gateway ‘organisation’ User ID and Password they used when setting their AMLS account up. They need to log into their AMLS account on GOV.UK and not into their Government Gateway account.
• Customers can log into their online account from https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/anti-money-laundering.
• If customers are unsure of their log-in details they should contact MLRCIT@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk who can provide the User ID and instructions to reset the password. They should put ‘User ID/Password reset’ in the subject line.