IEIM740080 | Knowledge, possession, or Control

To be reportable by an intermediary, information must be in its knowledge, possession or control. Any person, in fulfilling their reporting obligations, should take account of the information they know, and information that is available to them. They should review documents and information in relation to the arrangement to identify the information that is reportable.

An intermediary would not have to trawl through all of an organisation’s computer systems to try and find all information held in relation to a reportable taxpayer just to see if it was relevant. However, where relevant information is known to be held, the intermediary should report it. Failure to report information that is in a person’s knowledge possession or control could mean a person fails to meet their obligations under the regulations, which could give rise to a penalty.

Where there is a deliberate effort to split work and knowledge between people working on a particular arrangement, to try and avoid certain pieces of information being reported, HMRC would nonetheless consider that the information was in the intermediary’s knowledge, possession, or control.

Where an intermediary does not have certain reportable information in its knowledge, possession, or control, it may seek to obtain further information from other intermediaries or reportable taxpayers in order to minimise duplicate reporting where possible. For example, if an intermediary does not routinely collect certain information from clients, such as their address or National Insurance number, it may prefer to request that information from the client, to avoid the client having to make a further report.