We are buying the goodwill of a sole trade accountancy practice through a new co and I was wondering about the best way of approaching the 64-8 swide of things. Is there a simple way of doing this or will the new co have to send out 64-8s to every client? Is there a way of taking over the sole trader's HMRC agent reference and, if so, could this mean inheriting potential problems along with it?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We've painstakingly gone through the due diligence process in fine detail but this is something that I hadn't even considered until today.
Replies (4)
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Electronic authorisation
Assuming you are registered with HMRC Online service (and if not, why not?) you can go to the"authorise client" and enter their UTR, and this will generate a code that I sent to client to send onto you.
Depends how you phrase it.
If your trading style is "Incorporating XYZ & Co" then just notify HMRC of the change of address.
Not just incorporating
Unless I have misread your query, you are not just the same person becoming a company. You are an entirely different person (or group of people) that is taking over the clients of another accountant.
Being an authorised agent means having access to confidential information. It is only right and proper that clients be given the chance to confirm whether they are happy for someone entirely new to have that sort of access.