The UK tax advisory sector is about to enter a new era. From April 2026 all tax advisers dealing with UK taxes on behalf of their clients will be legally required to register with HMRC, provided they meet certain minimum standards.
Failing to comply with this requirement may result in financial penalties for the adviser and the inability to file returns, or simply to contact HMRC by telephone or email, as an agent of the client.
It seems to capture activities not carried out by your typical tax adviser
Most notably, the current draft legislation on the subject appears to have a very broad reach: a ‘tax adviser’ is defined as any person (based in or outside the UK) who in the course of a business assists another in relation to tax, acts or purports to act as a tax agent, or provides ‘assistance with any document that is likely to be relied on by HMRC to determine the other person’s tax position’.
Broad definition
The big question here is if this definition was intended to have far-reaching implications well beyond the obvious consequences for professional tax advisers working in practice.
For example, the scope seems to also capture professional executors of a will dealing with inheritance tax matters, conveyancers and property solicitors submitting stamp duty land tax returns on behalf of their clients, and firms acting as trustees, which are typically responsible for reporting and paying tax on behalf of the trust and ultimately its beneficiaries. In other words, not your typical tax adviser.
Moreover, although tax professionals working in-house are specifically excluded from the requirement to register, it might also be compulsory for tax contractors to comply with the registration requirements or, if the contractors are employed by an umbrella company (which has in turn a contract for service with the end client), for the umbrella company to register as tax adviser as well.
Any person who deals with taxes even incidentally should review their position
In this regard, in fact, the draft legislation states that where an individual works for an organisation and interacts with HMRC ‘in the course of a business carried on by that organisation, the interaction is to be regarded as being carried out by the organisation as well as by the individual’.
Any person who, as part of their business, deals with taxes even incidentally should review their position and familiarise themselves with the new law.
Harder to police?
However, there seems to be a paradox with the current version of the legislation: it could in fact be harder for HMRC to police the requirement to register for those tax professionals who purely advise clients without necessarily interacting with HMRC (ie your typical tax adviser) as opposed to those who deal with-tax compliance tasks such as the submission of tax returns, which they would be prevented to file unless they are registered.
ACCA members should be in a very good position already
Requiring tax advisers to be members of a recognised professional body could have made it easier for the tax authority to raise and police standards in the tax advisory market (where currently about 35% of actors are not members of a professional body) and for the wider public to check that advisers are compliant with such a requirement. But the legislation in its current form will not require mandatory membership of a recognised professional body, despite this being specifically advocated by ACCA during the public consultation phase in March 2024.
Instead, the main requirements to meet to register will be:
- not having any outstanding tax returns or amounts of tax due
- not being subject to a sanction in relation to tax anti-avoidance activities, suspension, prohibition against registering or other measures imposed by HMRC
- not being insolvent, a disqualified director in the UK or elsewhere, or having an unspent conviction for certain offences
- being registered with a supervisory authority for the purposes of anti-money laundering supervision
- complying with ‘any standards expected of tax advisers in their dealings with HMRC that are specified in a notice or other document published by HMRC’.
More clarity on the last condition ahead of April 2026 would be welcomed by tax professionals. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to expect that these standards will be in line with current HMRC guidance on the standard for agents.
To this extent ACCA members should be in a very good position, as those of us already undertaking tax work are bound by the Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT), which sets out the professional standards expected by ACCA tax professionals.
HMRC has been contacted for comment but has not responded.
