HMRC Tax Adviser Registration

Mandatory registration handled for you, accurately and on time.

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Tax Adviser Registration For Law Firms

From 18 May 2026, HMRC requires any firm that interacts with it on behalf of clients to register as a tax adviser and meet minimum standards. The requirement applies whether or not your firm considers itself a tax practice. RACO is able to manage the entire registration and post registration process for your firm, identifying who needs to be registered, gathering the right information, and liaising with HMRC until you are successfully registered and then maintaining your registration.

Does this apply to your firm?

Almost certainly, yes. The obligation introduced under Part 7 of the Finance Act 2026 is based on what your firm does, not on its job title. If your firm is paid to interact with HMRC on behalf of clients, including submitting returns, making payments, or simply communicating with HMRC by phone, post, email or online portal, registration is required.

This brings most law firms into scope, including many residential conveyancing, private client and tax-related teams. The exclusions are narrow. In-house lawyers dealing only with their own group’s tax affairs, and locums, generally do not need to be registered.

If your firm already holds an Agent Services Account, you do not need to re-register. HMRC will contact you through your existing account to confirm you meet the new conditions.

Who needs to be registered?

Registration is not limited to fee earners. The regulations require you to register every Officer and every Relevant Individual in your firm.

Officers include:

Directors and partners, whether equity or salaried
Members of an LLP
Persons of significant control who are not directors, partners or members

Relevant Individuals include any member of staff, fee earning or support, who:

Provides or assists with tax advice
Acts on behalf of a client in relation to tax
Prepares documents likely to be relied upon by HMRC to determine a client’s tax position
Contacts HMRC by phone, post, email or online portal, or files returns and notices

Getting this scoping right matters. If you fail to register all Officers and Relevant Individuals, your firm will not be compliant.

Firms with 5 or less officers

Where a business 5 or less officers (directors, partners, LLP members and overseas equivalents), legislation treats each of them as relevant individuals, alongside anyone else within the business who meets the definition of a relevant individual.

Where you can, you will need to bring the number of registered people to 5 in total.

Firms with 6 or more officers

Where a Firm has six or more officers, the Firm is expected to identify those individuals who genuinely exercise strategic or managerial control over the whole (or a substantial part) of the tax advice activities.

This allows the definition to operate proportionately across businesses of different sizes, while ensuring that individuals with real influence and accountability are identified for checks.

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How RACO helps

We have been through this process ourselves, so we can advise on it in full. We have provided a Tax Adviser Registration Guidance Document that we hope will be helpful so you can prepare to register. If you would like us to do this for you, our service, detailed below, is designed to lift the administrative burden from your firm while keeping you in control of the decisions that matter.

Registration Guidance

Registration Service

A one-off service that takes your firm from “where do we start” to fully registered:

We identify who in the firm is a Relevant Individual and needs to be registered
We commence the registration and complete all the necessary information, including providing the link for individuals to submit their own details
We issue each Relevant Individual with an information request and a declaration to sign
We handle questions from the firm and staff about the process and what it means for them
We collect information and declarations of compliance from the individuals and confirm each individual has registered
We flag any lack of cooperation early, so you can engage with individuals directly, as registration cannot be completed without full cooperation from all parties
We liaise with HMRC as required until your firm is successfully registered

Ongoing Managed Service

For firms that want registration kept current without it landing on an internal desk, our ongoing service additionally:

Manages your registration on a continuing basis
Adds new individuals as they join
Obtain updated and new declarations of compliance from all staff for both new starters and existing staff.
Removes individuals as appropriate
Guides you through any HMRC enquiries, with investigation support agreed separately before we engage

The initial registration fee is charged once. The ongoing fee can be paid monthly as part of your wider compliance service. Download our brochure for detailed information.

What you will need to register

To help you prepare, registration requires information including your Government Gateway details, full firm name, company registration number, Unique Taxpayer Reference, the self-assessment postcode, a primary HMRC contact, evidence of your AML supervision, and details for each individual being registered (full name, email, NI number and UTR). Directors and members must already appear on Companies House, as the system checks the officer register before allowing you to proceed.

We provide a single information request that gathers everything in one place, so you are not chasing details piecemeal.

You can view our Registration Guidance document below.

Registration Guidance

Don’t leave it to the deadline

Registration opened on 18 May 2026 and is being phased in. The deadline that applies to your firm depends on your circumstances, and the timeline runs through to 2027 for some firms. Acting early avoids a last-minute scramble and the risk of being unable to interact with HMRC on behalf of your clients.

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Why firms choose RACO

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A process we have completed ourselves, advised by a team that knows the system

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A genuine reduction in the administrative load on your firm

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Correct scoping of Officers and Relevant Individuals, so nothing is missed

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Direct liaison with HMRC on your behalf, with your permission

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Declarations and compliance statements collected and recorded properly

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The option to fold ongoing management into your existing RACO compliance service

Looking for complete compliance support?

Discover our SRA Compliance Essentials Service.

Tax adviser registration is one of several obligations RACO manages for law firms. Many firms combine this with our SRA Compliance Essentials service, which provides ongoing support across Policies, Controls and Procedures, AML and risk management, annual audit and staff training. If you would like registration handled as part of a broader compliance framework, we can discuss both together.

Find out more

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Contact Our Team

To ask any questions about the Regulation and Compliance Office and how we can support your Law Firm, please call us on 0203 985 8550, complete the online enquiry form below, or email us info@regulationandcomplianceoffice.co.uk