HMRC puts payroll professionals inside adviser-conduct regime

HMRC has redrawn the examples of who counts as a tax adviser for the sanctionable-conduct regime — and the moves run in both directions. Payroll professionals are now listed among those who are tax advisers, while insolvency practitioners or business recovery specialists and independent auditors have been added to the list of those who typically will not beGOV.

The definition the page applies comes from the substituted paragraph 2 of Schedule 38 to FA 2012: Finance Act 2026 Schedule 22 replaced the old individual-only tax-agent definition with a tax-adviser definitionLegislation covering an organisation acting in the course of its businessLegislation as well as an individual acting in the course of business, whether as sole trader or working for an organisation. That assistance covers advising on tax, acting or purporting to act as agent on tax, helping with documents HMRC is likely to rely on to determine a tax position, and even non-tax assistance given knowing it will or is likely to be used in connection with tax affairs. Free advice, lectures and pro bono work fall outside, provided they are not done to promote a business or otherwise in the course of business. The regime catches current and former tax advisers — penalties can follow a person after they stop acting — and information powers can also reach third-party document-holders who were never advisers.

Against that backdrop the list changes matter because the page says the lists show who is likely to meet the definition, with the actual answer turning on the caseGOV. The "is" list now runs: sole accounting or tax practitioner; accountancy or tax advice organisations including partnerships and companies; business adviser; directors, partners, members, employees or contractors of an accountancy or tax practice (with a new pointer to CH117830 on when individuals within firms face penalties); tax agent or consultant; payroll professional (new)GOV; bank employees who assist with tax; solicitors, barristers and other legal professionals who assist with tax; valuers for tax purposes; and directors, partners, members, employees or contractors of a repayment agent.

The other list is both renamed and extended: from "who is not" to "who typically will not be" a tax adviser — a softening that leaves the door open on the facts — and it now covers in-house tax professionals filing for their own business or group, family-and-friends advisers outside business, Citizens Advice and similar charities and organisations, plus the two new entries for insolvency and audit.

For payroll professionals the consequence is direct: payroll work done in the course of business that assists others with tax affairs can now put the practitioner inside the sanctionable-conduct net — file access notices, conduct notices and penaltiesGOV — where the old list gave no such signalGOV. For insolvency practitioners and auditors the new examples point the other way, though "typically" means neither group should treat the entry as immunity.

Legal basis: FA12/SCH38 as amended (including FA26/SCH22 substitution of PARA2, the tax-adviser definition the page cites as FA12/SCH38/PARA2 as amended).