Accountability Of Financial Officers For Reporting System Controls

Legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2009 (expected on 30 April 2009) to ensure that accounting systems in operation within large UK tax paying groups are adequate for the purposes of accurate tax reporting (ie tax returns and supporting computations).

The measure

Senior accounting officers (likely to be the Finance Director) of such companies will be required to:

• take reasonable steps to establish and monitor accounting systems within their companies that are adequate for the purposes of accurate tax reporting;
• certify annually to HMRC that the accounting systems in operation are adequate for the purposes of accurate tax reporting; or
• specify the nature of any inadequacies and confirm that those inadequacies have been notified to the company auditors.