SAOG15300 - Senior Accounting Officer must provide a certificate to HMRC: specimen unqualified certificate

The Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) will provide an unqualified certificate where they are certifying that the company had appropriate tax accounting arrangements throughout the financial year.

An unqualified certificate should not contain any statements that may imply qualifications, see SAOG15200.

A suggested format for the certificate is

‘In accordance with Paragraph 2 Schedule 46 Finance Act 2009 I ……………………………………… as Senior Accounting Officer of the qualifying company listed below, hereby certify that, throughout the company’s financial year ended …………………………… the company had appropriate tax accounting arrangements’.

| Name of Company | UTR | |—————–|—–|

The certificate must be signed and dated by the SAO.

See SAOG15200 for guidance on what an SAO should do in respect of a period within a financial year before they became the SAO, and what they should take into account when considering their certificate for that financial year.

If an SAO is providing a certificate for more than one company they may if they wish provide one or more combined certificates - see SAOG15500.