This morning I have to register a business for Self Assessment which involves completing a form CWF1 (available on the HMRC website).

Easy I thought until I tried to print it and received the following message

Not wanting to give up at the first hurdle, after all this is the HMRC website so it wasn’t ever designed to be user-friendly, I decided to save the form to my desktop and then print it and received the same message!

Do HMRC expect everyone to enter the information in the form before printing it? If so, how do I manage when I don’t have all the details to hand?

I could understand it if the form was submitted online but it isn’t it has to be printed, signed and posted to HMRC.

I have checked with HMRC that I’m not missing the bleedin’ obvious and have been told that the form cannot be printed unless it is complete but I can phone the Newly Self-Employed Helpline and ask them to send me a paper copy to complete!

Have HMRC ever heard of the word efficiency?