The pandemic meant that many of HMRC’s staff were reallocated, which has had a knock-on effect on various departments. One area that has been affected is the processing of the SA1 form, meaning that many taxpayers are struggling to obtain a unique taxpayer reference (UTR) number, which is required to submit the tax return and to make the payment of tax. The UTR is used as the reference for the payment of the tax liability, and is used by HMRC to match the payment to the correct taxpayer.

However, it seems inevitable that some taxpayers will not receive their UTR by 31 January 2022. If that includes you, to avoid any problems you should generate a payslip online using your NI number instead of a UTR. You will then need to send this by post with a cheque payment. The cheque should also have the NI number on the reverse. This will allow HMRC to match the payment to the account and negate any possible late payment penalty.