Employer compliance check ― role of the agent

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Owner-Managed Businesses

Guidance

If the employer engages an agent or adviser to help handle an HMRC employer compliance check, the agents’ role is usually to ensure that the employer, within the bounds of ethical and legal constraints, gets as good a deal as possible in resolving any issues that the compliance check identifies.

It is worth remembering that agents have to balance the following, possibly competing, requirements:

•
minimising the cost for their clients in duties, interest and penalties
•
minimising the cost in professional fees for their clients (which may include ensuring that the terms of any fee insurance scheme are met)
•
applying the relevant legislation and case law
•
acting ethically and in accordance with guidance from their professional body
•
maintaining their professional standing with HMRC

Existing agents also need to consider what led to the irregularities that are identified and whether they might have any potential liability for incorrect advice in the past or for failing to identify or advise on a particular area. Since agents

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Lesley Fidler

Employment taxes specialist at RSM

After several decades advising employers of all sizes on tax compliance including the Construction Industry Scheme and IR35, in 2016 Lesley decided to practice what she had preached by joining the tax team of a financial institution and working in-house. Although she no longer speaks on tax issues, she continues to write and retains a particular interest in the area of national insurance contributions. Lesley is a member of both the Chartered Institute of Taxation (sitting on its Employment Taxes sub-committee) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. After gaining a law degree and her initial training as a solicitor she joined the Inland Revenue as a direct entrant inspector before realising that she preferred advisory work and the opportunity for long-term collaboration that this can bring.

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