How to help friends and family with their tax

3 mins

Our experts at DSR Tax Refunds know how hard it is to find good, quality information about HMRC’s tax regulations that is easy to understand, and that’s why we have created these handy guides to tell you everything you need to know. Our aim is to make life easier for our clients and that is why we want to share our expertise with you. You can also call our friendly team on 0330 122 9972 – we’re the tax experts you can trust.
What is a ‘trusted helper’?
If you have a friend or family member who is struggling to do their taxes, you can register with HMRC to be a ‘trusted helper’ so that you are able to help them. You will then be able to help them check that they’re paying the right amount of tax, claim a tax refund on their behalf, check and update their personal tax account and check and update their company car tax.
However, the person you are helping is still legally responsible for their own tax, not you. If they don’t pay their tax or fail to pay it on tax, HMRC will hold them responsible for those failures not you.
You are allowed to be a trusted helper for up to 5 people.
How do you become a trusted helper?
You can register online at the HMRC website to become a registered helper. You will need to provide the following details to HMRC, both for yourself and for the person you are becoming a trusted helper for:

The person you are helping will then need to use the online service to accept your registration. If they can’t go online for any reason, you may be able to call HMRC on their behalf although HMRC will expect you to be in the same room as the person you are helping when you call so that they can confirm that they accept you as a trusted helper.
Can you call HMRC on someone else’s behalf?
If you have a friend or family member who is struggling to deal with an HMRC issue but they can’t go online for some reason, you can call HMRC on their behalf and talk to them about the tax issues your friend or family member is struggling with. You must be in the same room as that person so that HMRC can confirm their identity and make sure that they are happy that you are representing them.
You will need their National Insurance number or their tax reference number when you call. If you are calling on behalf of someone who can’t speak English and you are acting as their interpreter, you must be over the age of 16. HMRC do have foreign language services if this causes a problem.
How can DSR Tax Refunds help?
We aim to make life as simple as possible for our clients and that includes giving you the information you need to make your taxes (and your life) simpler and less stressful.  Our team of experts at DSR Tax Refunds are always on hand to help our clients and our excellent standing with HMRC means that we can make sure you don’t fall foul of their regulations, while claiming your maximum tax relief. We can even take care of all that paperwork and deal with HMRC on your behalf too. Call our friendly team on 0330 122 9972 – we’re the tax experts you can trust.
This page was last updated on 25/10/2018.

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