Dan Lucas wrote:
Anamaria Calinescu wrote:
A CIF is the registration number issued by the tax authorities to a company, in the UK the equivalent is the company registration number, but then, it isn't applicable for sole traders.
I would just explain to them that you are a sole trader and not a company, so you have no company registration number. Then explain that you are not VAT-registered and that in the UK such VAT registration is not common for smaller businesses, as it is mandatory only when turnover reaches £85,000.
If they won't accept this, there's not much you can do, but if they're so inflexible that they cannot accept that other countries have different ways of doing things, you're better off not dealing with them, because you'll probably hit other problems down the road.
The UTR should be used only to identify you to HMRC, and I would certainly not be giving it out to other parties. Other than myself, only HMRC and my accountant know my UTR.
Regards,
Dan