This is the most common error that occurs when trying to submit a repayment claim from Fund Filer. 


It relates to the authentication details which accompany your claim not matching what is held at HMRC.


How it works 


Three pieces of authentication information are checked by the Government Gateway before your repayment claim is allowed to proceed on to HMRC's Charities Unit for processing. These are your:


  • HMRC Reference
  • Government Gateway user ID
  • Government Gateway password


When your claim fails due to a 1046 authentication failure, it is ALWAYS one or more of the above three items that HMRC can't authenticate against its own records.


Other information can cause a claim to fail later in the process. This might be data such as the name of the authorised official not being recognised or the actual claim content itself causing a problem. But these factors won't affect your claim passing through the Government Gateway initially and are never the cause of 1046 errors.


Resolving a 1046 error


Step One


The first question to consider is:

Has your charity has ever made an online repayment claim before? 


If it has, go to Step Two. If not, you need to check if your charity is:


If these registrations are not yet set up properly with HMRC, this needs to be done before you can submit an online repayment claim.


Please note that failing to activate your account is also a common reason for a 1046 error among charities new to online claiming.


On registering for the first time with Charities Online, you will be sent an activation code separately by post to activate your account. Nothing will work until you activate using this code. To do this, log into your account at HMRC https://online.hmrc.gov.uk and enter the code you've received when asked. 


Step Two


If you are satisfied your charity is properly registered or an online claim has been made before, you now need to look very carefully at the User ID and password you are using. 

If the Gateway is sending you a 1046 error, it means that the details you are entering on the 'submit' page on Fund Filer do not match anything held at HMRC for that HMRC Reference.


First check you are using the Government Gateway information for your charity! Three very common reasons for 1046 errors are:


  • Using your Fund Filer login details instead.


  • Using your own personal HMRC login details instead of your charity's details. Your charity has its own separate relationship with HMRC, quite different to your personal relationship.


  • Allowing your browser to paste down details without knowing what these details really are. This is a common trap as these details are often pasted down as dots. Be sure to manually type in your user ID and password so that you know the right information is being submitted.


If you are sure you are using the Government Gateway information for your charity, move to Step Three.


Step Three


If the registrations are all correct and you are sure you are using the right details, the most likely problem is case-sensitivity in your password.


Passwords are case-sensitive for data submissions through the Gateway of the type that are sent by Fund Filer. They are not case sensitive for logging into your account on the HMRC website.


Therefore, it’s possible to put in a password that works on the HMRC site but fails when submitting from Fund Filer.


Resolving this is fairly speedy if you do the following:


  • Log into your HMRC account. This will confirm that you are using the right details. If the details you have won't log you into your HMRC account, they'll never work with your Fund Filer submission and, before going any further, you need to resolve this by looking again at the points in Step 1 and Step 2 above to see what's wrong.


  • Once in your HMRC account, change the password. Doing this is good practice in the modern world in any case. Also, doing this will give you the chance to carefully note the exact details of your new password, including upper and lower case characters. You should find that putting this new password into Fund Filer with the User ID used for logging into your HMRC account will do the trick and your claim should submit nicely.

 

Step Four


Once you have resolved your 1046 error, especially if you've changed your Government Gateway password, make a careful note of what the problem was and any new details you've created.


This will result on smooth and trouble-free submitting with all your future Gift Aid repayment claims.