HMRC guidance on senior accounting officers

Newsletter issue - July 2016.

HMRC have published Brief 12(2016), which contains information on changes to their senior accounting officer guidance (SAOG). The Brief aims to clarify HMRC practice and reflects administrative changes to their operational procedures. These include:

• A change of practice allowing submission of certificates by electronic means in addition to the currently accepted methods;
• Extensive updates to reflect organisational change within HMRC and the role of Wealthy and Mid-Size Business Compliance (WMBC);
• New examples of how groups and aggregation should be applied;
• Clarification of HMRC's view on the inability to delegate the SAO role and their view of time limits for short or long accounting periods;
• Clarification about when requests for extensions to time limits for SAO notification or certificates will be considered;
• Clarification of the SAO role where a company is struck off; and
• Various updates throughout the guidance to reflect the changes to how HMRC are organising their compliance work.