Delays blamed on legislation, protecting system from abuse
Accountancy Age, 24 Aug 2007
High risk VAT applications are expected to take as long as 50 days to process, HM Revenue & Customs has warned businesses.
The taxman is meant to clear complete and low risk applications within two weeks, but is taking 38 days on average to complete a registration, according to reports.
HMRC blamed the delays on the rise in registrations due to the Managed Service Companies legislation, the need to prevent abuse of the system, the consolidation of VAT offices and IT problems.
It predicts that some improvement would be visible from the autumn, although it may be early 2008 before it meets its target.
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