From 6 April 2020 non-resident companies which own UK property were required to start paying corporation tax (CT) rather than income tax on their profits from rents. As these companies were previously required to pay income tax on a tax year basis, HMRC’s default position is that the company’s accounting date will be 5 April unless the company informs HMRC otherwise.

HMRC undertook to automatically issue non-resident landlord companies with CT unique taxpayer references (UTRs) and this process was completed in 2020. However, as payment and filing deadlines for many of these companies are now approaching, agents are discovering that many of their corporate non-resident landlord (NRL) clients have not received a CT UTR.

The Tax Faculty advises that if your corporate NRL client has not yet received their CT UTR, HMRC should be provided with a new signed 64-8 form, agent authority for corporation tax, together with a covering letter. The letter should quote the corporate NRL’s income tax self assessment UTR on the covering letter, but the space for the UTR on the new 64-8 should be left blank.

The letter and 64-8 agent authority form should be sent to: 

Charities, Savings and International 1, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AU. 

If agents have a number of corporate NRL clients who have not received their CT UTR, they can send all the applications in one envelope. However, as HMRC will potentially allocate each 64-8 form to different staff members, agents must ensure that there is a separate covering letter for each 64-8.