Does anyone disagree that per page 19 of this link

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An agent can sign a SA700 if necessary (being authorised to do so by the NRL company)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

"If the tax return is signed by someone authorised by the company, then as well as completing box 10.2, that person should also enter their name and address in the ‘Additional information’ box, box 11.1, on page 10."

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By Mr_awol
28th Jan 2020 13:00

According to that link "anyone authorised" may sign. That would appear to include an agent.

The manual for logging Returns (including SA700s) suggests otherwise, but is rather focussed on individuals' Returns https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/self-assessment-manual/sam12103...

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Replying to Mr_awol:
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By Justin Bryant
28th Jan 2020 13:02

Agreed & many thanks.

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Replying to Mr_awol:
Psycho
By Wilson Philips
28th Jan 2020 14:29

I agree - it’s exactly the same as it is for CT600 forms, where any old Tom, Dick or Harry may sign (with authority of the directors). Or at least that used to be the case until the signature box was removed.

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By richard thomas
28th Jan 2020 15:44

What the SA700 Notes say at page 19 is simply following the law. Section 8(2) TMA requires the person making the return to make a declaration of truth and completeness. Section 108(1) TMA said that anything to be done by a company under the Taxes Acts is to be done by the "proper officer", which for a body corporate means the secretary, or (since 1993) by a person "as may for the time being have the express, implied or apparent authority of the company to act on its behalf for the purpose".

For the historically minded note that the company's chamberlain is also answerable for the truth of the return (s 71(1) TMA), though this is expressed to be subject to s 108. And also note the now redundant second sentence of s 108(1), as Part VIII TMA has been wholly repealed. The back end of TMA is a fascinating place, and about which I am preparing a paper for the Tax History Conference of the Centre for Tax Law in Cambridge. (This came out as Ambridge at first, but that's where I am giving a paper on farmers' averaging!)

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By Justin Bryant
28th Jan 2020 16:03

Indeed, and in a similar vein I recall that the words "idiot" etc. were only relatively recently removed from the back end of TMA 1970.

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Replying to Justin Bryant:
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By richard thomas
28th Jan 2020 17:05

Yes, by FA 2012. The full definition of "incapacitated person" in s 118 TMA was:

"any infant, person of unsound mind, lunatic, idiot or insane person".

It had been worse as I pointed out in my wedding speech. S 237 ITA 1918 says:

‘Incapacitated person’ means any infant, married woman, lunatic, idiot, or insane person;"

I do not think the change from "married women" to "person of unsound mind" was meant to imply anything.

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Replying to Justin Bryant:
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By Dib
29th Jan 2020 13:38

Yes, but don't forget that the term 'idiot' had a specific meaning in the legal and psychiatric trades to indicate a person with severe intellectual disability. On a sliding scale, idiots were the dimmest of the three categories of the hard of thinking (morons, imbeciles and idiots) based on their apparent mental age.

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By Justin Bryant
29th Jan 2020 14:39

Yes; there is a well known tax QC who uses those terms to describe most if not all employees of HMRC.

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