Taxman won’t let me use my online account

A.C. writes: I was registered to use the Revenue & Customs online service via the Government Gateway scheme for managing my personal tax account. But I found I was locked out as I had not used it for three years. Trying to renew my registration has proved impossible due to questions about my identity.

PART of the process of renewing your registration meant you had to supply information about your passport and your credit record. You are sure you answered questions accurately and honestly, but the system rejected you, claiming some information you provided was not accurate.

You contacted the Revenue but officials would not help. As they pointed out, if they told you the ‘right’ answers, they could easily have been helping someone impersonate you.

I asked staff at the Revenue headquarters what you should do, and they suggested you call for assistance. But when I looked at the instructions, it stated: ‘Make sure your personal details and address are up to date in your personal tax account or you could fail telephone security.’

Since your very problem was that you were denied access to your tax account, how could you possibly make sure its details were up to date?

Happily, officials have managed to shift the goalposts. One told me: ‘Customers can now use GB driving licences as one of the two forms of ID needed to verify their identity on the Government Gateway.’

Bizarrely, until a few weeks ago only Northern Ireland driving licences were accepted.

You have now had a call from the Revenue guiding you through the renewal process successfully.