XBRL tagging: context entity identifiers
Updated 19 April 2017
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1. Overview
Company Tax Returns must be filed online for any accounting period ending after 31 March 2010. Additionally, companies must file accounts and computations, which form part of the return, in Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL) format.
Unincorporated organisations and charities that don’t need to prepare accounts under the Companies Act can choose to send their accounts in iXBRL or Portable Document Format (PDF). However, any computations must be sent in iXBRL format.
This document is aimed at software developers and those who are using conversion tools to prepare accounts and computations in iXBRL using manual tagging processes. It explains what a context entity identifier is and provides a list of entity identifier schemes that must be used depending on the type of organisation the accounts and computations relate to.
2. XBRL context entity identifier
Every XBRL tag applied to data must also identify the entity the data belongs to. For example, it is not sufficient knowing that a tagged data item represents ‘Net Income’, we need to know that it represents ‘Net Income’ for XYZ Ltd. A context entity identifier is the reference that identifies which company or organisation the tagged data belongs to. Every company or organisation must have a unique context entity identifier which must be used for XBRL tagging for both accounts and computations sent to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
All filers of Company Tax Returns will be associated with some form of register which uses a specific reference to identify it. An XBRL context entity identifier consists of two parts. The first part indicates the registration scheme that the entity is associated with and the second part is a unique value within that registration scheme. Take, as an example, a company registered with Companies House. Its context entity identifier will consist of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) representing the Companies House Registration Scheme and the Company Registration Number (CRN) itself.
Please note that for a given company the same context entity scheme and identifier value must be used throughout for both the accounts and computations.
If you are using Integrated Accounts Software or HMRC’s free Corporation Tax filing service, the context entity scheme and identifier will normally be provided automatically.
If you are using a conversion tool or other bespoke software to prepare your iXBRL documents you may need to specify the context entity scheme URL and identifier value yourself.
The table below will help you identify your context entity scheme URL and identifier. If you have a Company Registration Number, you should use this in preference to any other identifier.
A scheme URL is just a convenient string of characters that uniquely identify an organisation that administers a registration scheme - it may link to a relevant part of that organisation’s web site, but it doesn’t have to.
3. List of identifier schemes URLs and context entity identifiers
| Type of organisation | Identifier scheme URL | Context entity identifier |
|---|---|---|
| Organisations incorporated under Companies Act 2006 | http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ | Company registration number (CRN) an eight digit number or two alpha characters followed by a six digit number. Example: 01234567 or AC097609 |
| Building Societies Act 1986 | http://mutuals.fsa.gov.uk/ | A one to ten digit number followed by a suffix of one to four upper-case characters. Example: 123BS |
| Friendly and Industrial Provident Societies Act 1968 | http://mutuals.fsa.gov.uk/ | A one to ten digit number followed by a suffix of one to four upper case characters. Example: 12C |
| Friendly Societies Act 1992 | http://mutuals.fsa.gov.uk/ | A one to ten digit number followed by a suffix of one to four upper case characters. Example: 1234WI |
| ’Registered society’ registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 | http://mutuals.fsa.gov.uk/ | A one to five digit number followed by a suffix of one to four upper case characters. Example: 12345R |
| Insurance Accounts Directive (Miscellaneous Insurance Undertakings) Regulation 2008 | http://www.fsa.gov.uk/ Note: Insurance Accounts Directive is separately administered and is not part of the FSA register of mutuals. | A six digit number Example: 123456 |
| Charities | http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/ | Registered Charity Number Example: 234567 |
| Companies incorporated abroad | Use the identifier scheme URL for country jurisdiction. | Identifiers will have different values depending on their home jurisdiction. |
| All other entities that fall outside the organisations on this list | http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ | Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number Example: 1234567890 |