MTAR10200 - Scope and requirement to register: groups and complex business structures
Overview
In some sectors, including financial services, tax advice services may be delivered through complex legal or commercial arrangements. These can include, for example, joint ventures, trust structures, or other arrangements involving multiple legal entities.
Where these arrangements exist, businesses must consider how their structures operate in practice to identify who is required to register and who must meet the registration conditions. HMRC will take this into account when assessing whether the correct entity has registered and whether the registration conditions are met.
Registration at entity level
Businesses should identify the legal entities that are responsible for interacting with HMRC on behalf of clients. Where services are delivered across multiple entities, each legal entity must consider its own position independently.
If one entity falls under the registration requirement and registers, their registration status does not cover other entities in the same group or structure. Equally, an entity that does not meet the definition of a tax adviser is not required to register simply because another entity within the wider organisation is in scope. Only the business that interacts with HMRC on behalf of clients is required to register. This applies regardless of where the individuals carrying out the work are based or how they are engaged, including where activities are performed by contractors or offshore group entities.
Further guidance on identifying relevant individuals in complex structures is set out in MTAR20400.
HMRC is working with the sector on more complex scenarios and examples will be added to this guidance.