CISR22010 - Authenticate customer: authentication: when to authenticate

| CISR22600 | Action guide contents | |—————————————————————————————————–|———————–|

When to authenticate

All access to the CIS record by face to face contact with the customer and by phone is done using the Authenticate Customer function covered in this chapter.

To preserve confidentiality, each and every contact by a subcontractor/contractor, or the person acting on their behalf, must be authenticated. This applies whether the contact is face to face at an HMRC office, over the phone, or using the Internet. Because of the need to know the identity of the contact, the same applies with contacts initiated by HMRC. See CISR22020 for more about ‘By passing Authentication’and using the [Waive] button.

For the Internet, authentication will be handled by the Government Gateway and the HMRC Portal and the initial access to the CIS Internet service will be using the same User ID and password that is used by the customer to access their other on-line services (SA/CT/PAYE).

Remember that you are authenticating the customer not as a subcontractor or contractor but by the type of business entity of the customer. This means you are authenticating the customer as a sole-trader, partnership and so on. Only after authentication has been achieved do you move on to take actions on the system in the customer’s role as subcontractor, contractor or both.