SAM104002 - Records: trace taxpayer record: Records: SA tracing

SA Tracing is a web based tracing service and can be used to find Unique Taxpayer References for:

  • SA Partnerships
  • SA Trusts
  • SA Non-Resident Landlords

The SA Tracing role is available through SRS and must be requested by your manager.

What you can search on

SA Tracing allows you to trace on:

  • Name (single field which matches on any part of the name)
  • Address (single field which matches on any part of the address)
  • Postcode (full or part)
  • Taxpayer Reference (UTR)

A search is made on the database for records that contain all the information you entered. This can result in:

  • No search results
  • Too many records matching the search criteria

Note: If a UTR is entered, all other search criteria entered will be ignored.

What SA Tracing displays

When a match is made using the search criteria the following information can be displayed:

  • UTR
  • Name
  • Address
  • Historic Indicator

How to search on SA Tracing

  • You do not need to complete all fields to search for a record. Information does not need to be completed in full. For example part of an address can provide more successful matching results than a full address. 

Keywords

A keyword is a single piece of information in a field. Within a field each keyword is separated by a space. For example

  • Name field - J Smith equals twio keywords

You can use multiple search keywords in the name and address search fields. Records are found where all the keywords match in any order. For example Smith Jones

This would match

  • Smith AND Jones
  • Jones AND Smith

No more than 10 keywords in total can be used to trace a record.

Wildcards

The following wildcards can be used with keywords in the Name, Address and Postcode fields:

  • – (hyphen) and * (asterisk)
  • @ (‘at’ symbol)
  • ? (question mark)

Wildcards cannot be used at the start of a keyword.

Using - and *

  • If a keyword is long you do not need to enter the whole name. Instead enter
  • The first few letters

Followed by

  • A hyphen or asterisk. Do not leave a space

Enter at least four letters before the hyphen, although three may also produce a match.

A search is made for all records where the name entered starts with those letters. For example, if the name being searched for is Whittington

In the Name field enter Whit- or Whit*

You will get matches with

  • White
  • Whitehead
  • Whitehouse
  • Whitley
  • Whitly and others

Keywords with a hyphen in the middle will be treated as multiple keywords.  

For example, if you enter Smith-Jones in the Name field

You will get matches with

  • Smith-Jones
  • Jones-Smith
  • Smithson Jones

Using @ and ?

If you are not sure of a spelling, or the name is partly illegible, you can use @ and ? to help make an entry. If you have an unknown letter, or letters

  • The sign @ can be substituted for each unknown letter
  • The sign ? can be used to show the position of an unknown letter which may or may not be present

If you enter Br@@n, you will get matches with

  • Brown
  • Brain
  • Brien
  • Breen
  • Bryan

But not

  • Bron or any four letter name

If you enter Thom?son, you will get matches with

  • Thomson

And

  • Thompson

Wildcards can be used together to search for a record. For example Sm@th?-, you will get matches with

  • Smyth
  • Smith
  • Smiths
  • Smithson

Other

Mc or Mac can be entered to search for both spellings.  For example, in the Name field enter

  • McKay

You will get matches with

  • McKay
  • MacKay

Enter

  • MacKay

You will get matches with

  • MacKay
  • McKay

If an apostrophe is entered the entry will be treated as multiple keywords.  For example, if you enter O’Neil in the Name field

It will be treated as

  • O Neil (O and Neil)

Postcode

Using a full UK postcode will be treated as two keywords. Postcode can be entered in the Address field or the Postcode field. A search can be done on one keyword.

For example, the postcode is TF3 4ER and you enter 4ER in the postcode field.

A search using postcode only might not be successful and further keywords will be required in one or more other fields, such as Name.

Information, Warning and Error Messages

If there are no matching records found then the following information message will be displayed

'Information: No matching records were found for the given search criteria. Please adjust your trace criteria or see the help guide for usage guidance.'

If an invalid character is entered the following warning message will be displayed

'Warning:  Invalid character entered in AAA field'   

For example, if an invalid character is entered in the Address field the warning message will be displayed as

'Warning:  Invalid character entered in Address field'   

If a wildcard is used at the start of a search keyword, the following message will be displayed

'Warning: Wildcard characters (@ ? - *) are not allowed at the start of a search keyword.'

When the search matches more than the maximum number of results that can be returned, the first 100 results will be displayed with the accompanying message

'The maximum of 100 results has been returned and more may be available.  Please refine your search criteria.'

When more than 10 search keywords are used in one search (can be spread across multiple fields or a single field) the following message will be displayed

'Warning:  Search keyword limit exceeded. A maximum of 10 search keywords are permitted.'

SA Tracing is a web based tracing service and can be used to find Unique Taxpayer References for:

  • SA Partnerships
  • SA Trusts
  • SA Non-Resident Landlords

The SA Tracing role is available through SRS and must be requested by your manager.