Advance Tax Certainty Service

ATCS04200 - Advance Tax Certainty Service: Process: Early engagement and clearance applications: Application checklist

To ensure a customer receives an accurate clearance, they must be fully transparent and share all relevant facts with HMRC and provide timely responses to requests for further information. The Advance Tax Certainty Service follows the principle that a customer must be completely open and honest, "put all cards face upwards on the table," and fully disclose all relevant facts to the tax authority.

The formal clearance application should include details on the applicant and application, the transaction(s) and legal points, as well as any supporting information.

Information about the applicant and the application

Customers applying for this service must provide:

• contact details and the name and address of the entity incurring the project expenditure
• where available, their relevant customer identification number (e.g. Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) or VAT Registration Number)
• a summary of the transaction(s) and legal issue(s) on which clearance is sought, with fuller details to be provided under the appropriate headings below
• the first accounting period for which clearance is sought, including year-end date and filing deadline

Agents may represent customers and apply for this service on their behalf. Please note that HMRC can only respond to authorised agents. If a customer wishes for an agent to apply on their behalf, the agent must provide details pertaining to their:

• name
• address
• telephone number
• email address
• authority to act on the behalf of the customer

If more than one entity is involved in the same transaction or project (such as in a Joint Venture or Consortium), a joint application can be submitted to help reduce duplication and ensure consistency across all. A submission for a joint application must:

• identify all entities involved, including names, tax references (where available), and an explanation of organisational relationships
• provide a named contact for each entity, which must be the applicant, or someone formally authorised to act on their behalf (written authorisation confirming representation should accompany the application)
• clearly set out the roles and responsibilities of each entity and how they relate to the clearance request (e.g. owner/investor or design and build subcontractor)

The joint application must be made by one qualifying person with written agreement from all other qualifying persons. HMRC will direct all correspondence, decisions, and updates to the nominated person. HMRC will need to discuss and establish permission and the approach to tax confidentiality between the qualifying person representing for example JV and Consortium applicants.

Information about the transactions

The application must contain:

• details of which taxes the application refers to
• a full factual description of the transaction or project of sufficient depth to allow technical conclusions to be reached
• an official internal project business plan or investment case prepared for internal authorisation of the project spend, or external business case for raising finance
• the expected project duration and expenditure period
• a detailed analysis of the tax consequences of the transaction and the issues the customer wants HMRC to consider for clearance
• the proposed date of the transaction, if it has not yet happened
• the duration of clearance sought (up to a maximum initial period of five years)

Information about legal points

The application must:

• outline the specific legislation the customer considers applies
• provide a summary of the different interpretations and the customer's reasoning for their interpretation conclusions (where the customer considers the application of the legislation is open to different possible interpretations)
• include copies of any advice already received which the customer is happy to disclose

Supporting information

To support a clearance application, the applicant should provide:

• relevant objective factual evidence supporting the project or transaction description and technical conclusions
• written consent that the customer understands and accepts the risks of using email to share information with HMRC
• written consent to use HMRC-approved secure methods, if not already provided
• the customer’s declaration that, to the best of their knowledge and belief, they have told HMRC about all the facts relevant to the investment and advice sought, and that these are correct

HMRC will work to produce further guidance on the format and content of applications ahead of the launch of the process to ensure all necessary information is provided and to help us process the request efficiently. However, HMRC will accept applications in any written format, provided they contain all the relevant details required for the clearance and is in English.

All supporting information should also be provided in writing and in English. Where supporting information is translated from another language, original language copies should also be included.

Supporting information should be provided in a digital format, with appropriate security to protect confidentiality. Applications made digitally should not provide a hard copy.