COM60001 - CT online services: CT online services overview: introduction
Services available
Initial registration
Access by existing customers
What can be viewed by HMRC staff
Services available
HMRC Online Services for companies and their agents enable them to:
- view details of liabilities and payments (View L and P)
- trace a payment
- submit tax return forms and correspondence
- make a payment
- add, amend and delete some name, address and contact details
- authorise an agent to act on their behalf
- amend or delete agent’s details held on their record.
Initial registration
Before using the service, customers have to register at the Government Gateway, which allows access to the CT Portal. To register, a customer has to enter ‘known facts’ as follows.
- A company must enter its UTR (Unique Tax Reference) and either the company Registration Number or postcode of the Registered Office.
- A club or association must enter its UTR (Unique Tax Reference) and the postcode of the address held on COTAX.
- An agent must enter its COTAX agent ID and its postcode.
If an agent has an address that is abroad, it does not have a postcode and cannot register for HMRC Online Services.
(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
If the registration attempt is unsuccessful, online help tells the company or agent how to solve the problem.
Access by existing customers
Existing customers access the CT Portal by entering their user ID and PIN to log in to the ‘At a glance’ page, which shows the services available to them, including the Corporation Tax Online Service. If customers have any problems they can contact the Online Services Helpdesk on 0300 200 3600.
You can see a copy of the information available to customers using CT View L and P (View Liabilities and Payments), which is is available through My Services > Corporate Services > Companies.
What can be viewed by HMRC staff
You normally have access to the applications View CT Returns and CT View L&P. The first lets you view returns that a company has submitted online. If you are in the office that is responsible for the COTAX record, you can also view the accounts, computations and other attachments.
If you find that you cannot open the attachments, check the COTAX record to:
- make sure you have access to the owning MUID
- there is not a period of responsibility on the record.
If there is a period of responsibility, use function APER (Amend Periods of Responsibility) to finalise the period on the record and see whether you can view the attachments the following day. If that does not fix the problem, or if there is no period of responsibility on the COTAX record, report the case to the COTAX Business Help Desk (This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
The CT View L&P application gives you a view of the company’s ‘Your Tax Account’ area of CT Online Services.