As part of HMRC ‘s work to introduce more controls over repayment agents, all paid agents making repayment claims are required to register with HMRC through an agent services account. This requirement has been in place since 2 August 2023. 

To enforce the requirement, HMRC is now updating the P87 income tax relief claim for job expenses and marriage allowance claim forms to include a box to enter the agent reference number (ARN). There will be a separate box that can be ticked to indicate that the nomination is in favour of someone who is not a paid agent. 

Where a form is submitted by a paid agent without an ARN, HMRC will treat the nomination as invalid and will make payment directly to the taxpayer. 

The new versions of these forms will be uploaded to GOV.UK in early February 2024. Using the new versions of the P87 and marriage allowance claim forms is mandatory for all forms received by HMRC from 26 February 2024. From that date, HMRC will reject claims using the old forms and taxpayers will be sent a letter inviting them to complete the new form.  The paper P87 form has been mandatory for some time. The requirement to use the marriage allowance claim form is new and applies from February 2024. 

The new versions should not be submitted to HMRC until they are made available on GOV.UK. HMRC will provide a further update on the transition to using the new forms early in 2024. 

HMRC will be updating other forms that give rise to repayments, such as the R40, in due course.