Annual Return Guidance

You should answer ‘Yes’ to working in tax if you provide tax compliance, tax advice, consultancy or guidance in tax in your working role in any way, including the following sectors:

• private practice
• the public sector (e.g. HMRC)
• commerce
• industry
• those working in mixed tax and technology or tax software development
• those working in the not-for-profit sector
• or in any other form (including writers/lecturers/trainers in the area of taxation)

You should select EVERY tax role option that is applicable to you where you have more than one tax role. For example if you are an employee working in tax as well as a part time self-employed sole trader providing tax services you should select both relevant options on the form.

Where you have more than one tax role in the same capacity, for example you are a director of two or more companies providing tax and accounting services listed at Companies House, please email us at [email protected] with details of your additional roles.

If you work in tax you will then be asked to state what your role is so that we can ascertain whether you come within the conditions of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 as amended (MLR) and require AML supervision.

Writers or lecturers in tax, or those whose tax work only relates to providing training on tax topics, generally will not be covered by the MLR. The same applies to those working in tax as employees within industry.

Please answer ‘Yes’ to working in tax and answer appropriately depending on what your role is. If the relevant option you select generates a question about your AML supervisor and you do not hold supervision then you should select the ‘No’ AML supervision option and add in a note in the explanatory box provided as to why.

If your Anti-Money Laundering Supervisor is not included on the drop-down list in this question, please answer ‘No’ to the question “Does your practice/firm/partnership have an Anti-Money Laundering Supervisor?” and give an explanation in the box provided.

For example, if your firm is based overseas, it’s AML supervisory body is unlikely to be listed here, so for an Isle of Man company or a firm registered in the Channel Islands you will need to answer ‘No’ and state your overseas location and the related AML supervisor in the explanatory box.

For members indicating CIOT as their AML supervisor, please be aware that AML supervision is not automatically included as part of your CIOT membership and must be separately applied for and renewed on an annual basis. Please see here for further information.

If you have not registered for CIOT AML supervision and do not hold AML supervision elsewhere you should answer ‘No’ to the question ‘Does your practice/firm/partnership have an Anti-Money Laundering Supervisor?’ and provide explanatory details as to your position in the box provided.

Please ensure you provide information that you have confirmed is correct when indicating your AML supervisor. You must be able to provide evidence of this if requested by CIOT.

For those answering ‘Yes’ to holding PII you will need to include the name of your PII insurer in the box provided (or your PII arrangements if any alternative self-insurance is in place under the permitted rules for other professional bodies). Please have this to hand before you begin your annual return.

If you answer is ‘No’ to your practice holding PII, then you will be given the option to indicate why you do not have PII in place.  Please select the most appropriate option from those listed. See FAQs 7 and 8 for more information on some appropriate selections. If your circumstances do not match the options listed, please select ‘Other’ and include an explanation in the box provided for this.

If you provide tax or accountancy services as a subcontractor (for example on a self-employed basis or through a company) you need to have professional indemnity insurance. This PII needs to either be on your own account or through the contractor’s PII (subject to certain conditions – see below) and must meet the requirements of the CIOT PII Regulations. 

If you do not have PII you must answer ‘No’ to having PII. You will then be offered several possible reasons and you should choose as follows:

Please note that the PII Regulations were updated in 2022, effective 1 January 2023 onwards, with changes to the requirements to be met for the PII subcontractor exemption to apply (section 3.2) and which are listed above. You should ensure you familiarise yourself with these changes.

The PII regulations covering members based overseas full time were updated in 2022 (effective 1 January 2023). Members and their firms based oversea must now have PII in place for any work undertaken for UK based clients:

If you do not have PII you should answer ‘No’ to question 2 (i.e. ‘No’ to having PII) and take action if needed to address this. You will be offered several possible answers and you should tick:

‘My practice is outside the UK’.

We will follow up with members to ensure the new requirements are being met for those affected by the changes.

PCRT sets out the principles and standards of behaviour that all members must follow in their tax work including the fundamental principles of:

• Integrity
• Objectivity
• Professional competence and due care
• Confidentiality
• Professional behaviour

And the standards for tax planning being:

• Client Specific
• Lawful
• Disclosure and transparency
• Tax planning arrangements
• Professional judgement and appropriate documentation.

Full details can be found here.

CPD is the mandatory requirement to maintain and develop skills and knowledge necessary to carry out professional and technical duties competently throughout the member’s working life, as detailed by the CPD Regulations here.

It applies to all members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) and the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) and Advanced Diploma in International Taxation (ADIT) affiliates who:

1. Provide tax compliance services, advice, consultancy or guidance in tax including, without limitation, those in private practice, the public sector, commerce, industry or not for profit sector.
2. Do not fall into paragraph 1 above but who use the designation(s)*; CTA, CTA (Fellow), ATII, FTII, Chartered Tax Adviser, ATT, Taxation Technician, ATT (Fellow), Taxation Technician (Fellow), ADIT affiliate or International Tax Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

Members coming within the scope of the regulations are required to perform such CPD as is appropriate to their duties. There is no longer a minimum hours requirement (nor ‘structured’ versus ‘unstructured’ requirements) and CPD records for those not working in tax would relate to their non-tax duties.

For example, an CIOT member who works in the banking industry, who is not undertaking any tax work and whose email sign off includes the letters CTA, is within scope of the CPD regulations. They are required to undertake and record CPD to ensure they are carrying out their duties competently.

The CPD question on the annual return should be answered as follows:

The CPD Regulations and Guidance were updated in 2022 with some minor changes effective from 1 January 2023. These include clarification of the requirements for pro bono work and retired members.

There is also an increased emphasis on the fact that CPD relates not only to tax technical material and does not only consist of face-to-face formal training sessions.  Members are encouraged to consider the wealth of CPD available to them to ensure they continue to maintain and develop the skills and competencies necessary and should refer to paragraphs 10.1 and 10.2 in the guidance section. Information on sources of CPD is available on the CIOT website here.

Members should refer to the updated regulations and guidance to ensure they are clear on the changes now in place.

The CPD Regulations and Guidance were updated in 2022 with some minor changes effective from 1 January 2023. These include clarification of the requirements for retired members:

Therefore, if CPD is not being undertaken you must not hold yourself out as a member by use of the designations (apart from those who are honorary members). 

Where the designations are not being used, members are still required to consider whether CPD would be beneficial for the protection of the recipient of the services and the member. 

The member must be transparent with those they provide services to where no CPD is being undertaken.