VAT registration delays set to continue

The Government has confirmed that businesses applying to register for VAT may experience delays for some time to come.
HMRC have been set a target of processing 70 per cent of applications within a 14-day period by January 2008.
However, the minister responsible for resolving the long-standing problem of the slowness with which registrations are being dealt has admitted that HMRC is unlikely to achieve that target.
During October, only 20 per cent of applications were processed within two weeks.

Jayne Kennedy, the financial secretary for the Treasury tasked with resolving registration problems, has admitted that HMRC will probably not succeed in hitting the 14-day processing deadline. She said “HMRC is working towards the target. However, it will be a challenge for them given the constraints they face.”

It has been a long-standing issue. In the year to April 2007, there were 851 complaints about delays in handling registrations, up from 401 in the previous year. In the last six months alone, a further 829 complaints have been received.

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