Agents should be professionally qualified, say MPs

A majority of MPs agree that anyone employed to deliver tax and accountancy services should be professionally qualified according to research carried out by the Association of Accounting Technicians after an HMRC report last year revealed that 82% of unregulated and unaffiliated tax agents are not qualified.

The key findings from the YouGov study commissioned by AAT include:

• 82% of MPs believe anyone giving paid-for tax and accountancy services should be appropriately qualified;
• 8% neither agreed or disagreed;
• 7% answered ‘don’t know’; and
• 2% disagreed.

The HMRC report found that two-thirds of agent related complaints to HMRC are about the one-third of agents who are unregulated. There is also a cost to the taxpayer not just because of poor advice but due to tax evasion egregious avoidance and money laundering.

Adam Harper AAT director of professional standards and policy said: ‘It is...