Following the Government’s response to the consultation, “Raising standards in tax advice: protecting customers claiming tax repayments”, a policy paper was published last week setting out that the legislation to render void assignments of income tax repayments commenced from 15 March 2023.
The practical consequences of this are:-
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any assignment notified to (received by) HMRC on or after 15 March 2023 will be legally void;
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any assignment documents, including those signed before 15 March 2023, notified to (received by) HMRC on or after 15 March 2023 will be legally void.
However, as a concession for the time being, HMRC will continue to accept these 'assignment documents' but treat them as non-legally binding nominations.
Agents do not need to amend assignment documents already signed by their clients but not yet sent to HMRC. In future, agents are asked to use nomination forms where a repayment is to be made to them rather than the taxpayer.