DMBM206500 - Payment processing and accounting: Certificates of Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs)

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Background
Contact points
Corporate Treasury action
Certificate refusals
Compliance criteria 

Background

Businesses must meet certain requirements before being able to tender for non-UK public sector contracts. One of the requirements is that all Tax and NIC payments are up to date. Applicants normally request formal confirmation of this through the Employers Helpline. In practice though, they may make their request direct to any HMRC office.

Contact points

Where you receive requests for (and enquiries about) Certificates of Compliance, providing that it relates to a tender for a non-UK Public Sector Contract, you should refer them to the following contact point:

Certificate of Compliance

VAT2 Unit
Second Floor
Centenary Court
1 St Blaise Way
Bradford
West Yorkshire
BD1 4XY

Tel: 03000 513 756 

e-mail  certificatesofcompliancemailbox@hmrc.gov.uk


A Certificate of Compliance cannot be issued in the following circumstances.

  • The tender is for a contract within the UK or Ireland, either public or private sector
  • The tender relates to the private sector outside the UK
  • The company wants confirmation that its tax affairs are up to date for any other reason.

Note: Anything else such as Certificates of Residency, Tax Certificates for the Republic of Ireland or tenders for private sector contracts inside/outside the UK are not dealt with by this team.

Certificates of Residency guidance can be found on GOV.UK

Applications for Tax Certificates for the Republic of Ireland or tenders for private sector contracts inside/outside the UK should be submitted to:

HM Revenue & Customs
NIC&EO
NIC&EO PAYE Employer Office
BP4102 Benton Park View
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE98 1ZZ

Corporate Treasury action

Where Corporate Treasury receive a request for a Certificate of Compliance they will normally process the application within a maximum of 15 days. 

They will review all of the applicant’s payment records for a period spanning approximately three years prior to the application being received. This will include, where appropriate, Self Assessment (SA), Company Tax (COTAX) and VAT (including duties and levies). If the applicant is payment compliant they will:

  • prepare and issue a certificate to the applicant by first class post

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  • (This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
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Certificate refusals

When the payment records indicate an unsatisfactory compliance record Corporate Treasury will advise the applicant (preferably by phone):

  • that the conduct of their tax and NIC affairs is unsatisfactory; and in future:
    • payments should be made by the statutory due date;
    • the certificate of compliance will not be issued until HMRC records indicate a consistent and sustained record of payment compliance.

Where a certificate of compliance is refused the consequence to the applicant may be that their contract tender is jeopardised. It is in the applicant’s best interests, therefore, to bring their payments and return record up to date and maintain this performance for the future.

Compliance criteria

The following criteria will be applied in broad terms when assessing an applicant’s compliance.

PAYE, NIC and VAT (and associated duties and levies)

Applicants should:

  • pay regularly by the required date for the period (for example, each month)
  • have submitted their returns on time (whether that is monthly, quarterly or annually).

Note: During peak periods (for example public holidays) delays may occur in the processing of payments. In such cases applicants should not be deemed non-compliant until after 25th of the month.

SA

Applicants should:

  • make payment on account by 31 January (before end of year of assessment)
  • make payment on account by 31 July (after year of assessment)
  • make the balancing payment by 31 January (after the year of assessment)
  • file their SA return by 31 January (after the year of assessment).

COTAX

Applicants should:

  • pay within £100 of the liability returned, by the normal due date (9 months and 1 day after the Accounting Period (AP) end date) or the 4th instalment due date in a quarterly payment case where the Accounting Period End (APE) is on or after, for example, 01/07/2002
  • file their Corporation Tax Self Assessment (CTSA) return by the filing date for the AP.