Is there a form to fill out to de-authorise your tax agent?

[oleanderwand]

My apologies to post in this old thread, but this is the only relevant thread I can find in this forum.

My accountant retires soon and there will be significant gaps until I find a new accountant (so no 64-8 paper will be filed by new accountant for sometime).

To de-authorise my accountant as tax agent, do both my accountant and I have to remove his tax agent status e.g. my accountant to remove me/my Ltd from his client list and I to remove him from my online tax account?

My accountant thinks it is sufficient to de-authorise him either from his side or my side, but Maslin's post in this thread seemed indicate that accountant removing client from their client list at their side might not be sufficient.

Any advice is much appreciated.

[Maslins]

From what you've said, I wouldn't worry about it! Ie if your accountant is retiring and that's the only reason they won't be assisting you anymore (rather than you're concerned they may do something dodgy), there's no harm in them remaining your authorised agent for a while longer. They'll just continue to receive some bits of post periodically, and still have access to certain things re you/your company in their HMRC portal account.

I would've thought your portal account would have a fairly clear option to remove them as authorised agent. Do be aware you'll potentially need to do this up to 4 separate times. Ie once each for VAT, PAYE, CT, and SA.

My comments in this thread (of ~5 years ago!) were that as agent we have the ability to delete a client from our visibility in our portal, but at least at the time it didn't seem that removed our authorisation more widely. Ie we'd still get post re that client, could still call HMRC re them etc.

[oleanderwand]

Thanks a lot Maslin. Yes, there is option on my portal account to do that. I'll make a note to do it for each of services, thanks for that.

Nowadays though, does accountant, in your experience, still receive post etc after they have remove client from their client list or has it changed since?

My accountant does not wish (if at all possible) to continue receiving my/Ltd's post after the date I am formally no longer his client - a concern that I can understand. His other clients are transitioning with new accountants and I am one of few who not directly transitioning.

[Maslins]

Nowadays though, does accountant, in your experience, still receive post etc after they have remove client from their client list or has it changed since?

My accountant does not wish (if at all possible) to continue receiving my/Ltd's post after the date I am formally no longer his client - a concern that I can understand.

If the accountant deletes from their end, being honest I don't know. It's not something we do often, only on rare occasions when a client left us some time ago and we keep getting post. We have on occasion found even after deleting them, the post doesn't stop!

If you're happy your accountant has done all they're going to do, have a go at removing them from your own portal. Beyond that, forget about it. If your accountant gets a letter or two after that and is grumpy, well, you did your best(!), and they can also try to do something their end to cancel it.