HMRC’s internal manuals are the technical guidance its own staff use, published on GOV.UK and arranged by subject into manuals with coded page references such as BIM00510. They show how HMRC thinks the law applies and how it will run a case, but they are not law: HMRC is under a duty to collect the tax the legislation imposes, and a taxpayer who relied on a manual that was wrong usually needs a public law argument rather than a tax appeal.

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What are HMRC’s internal manuals?

HMRC publishes its manuals as a GOV.UK collection described simply as HMRC technical guidance. They are written for HMRC officers, not the public. The Business Income Manual, for example, says it is written primarily for HMRC staff but can also assist customers and their professional advisers. That shapes how they read: they explain the law, HMRC’s interpretation of it and the internal procedure officers should follow, often in the same chapter.

The collection changes constantly. In 2026 alone HMRC added manuals on the Advance Tax Certainty Service and Mandatory Tax Adviser Registration in June, an anti money laundering manual for supervised businesses in August and a Special Measures manual in October, while removing others. A manual you bookmarked several years ago may have been archived or replaced.

How are the manuals organised and referenced?

The collection is an A to Z list of manuals by title, each with a short description. Within each manual, pages carry a letter prefix and a number. The prefix identifies the manual: BIM for the Business Income Manual, ADML for the Admin Law Manual, PTM for the Pensions Tax Manual. The numbers run in blocks, so contents pages sit at round numbers and detail pages beneath them. The Business Income Manual, for instance, opens with BIM00500 for its introduction, BIM20000 for the meaning of trade, BIM30000 and BIM40000 for measuring profits, and BIM70000 for the cash basis.

Most manuals start with an introduction explaining scope and pointing to other manuals for related topics. BIM00510 lists where to find capital allowances, loan relationships, Corporation Tax and property income guidance instead. Each manual also has an updates page listing amended pages by date with a note of what changed, and a search box limited to that manual.

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Which manuals do practitioners use most?

Manual Prefix What it covers
Business Income Manual BIM Computing trading profits for Self Assessment
Company Taxation Manual CTM All aspects of company taxation
Capital Gains Manual CG Capital gains and losses and working out the tax
Employment Income Manual EIM A guide to the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003
Property Income Manual PIM How rents from UK property are taxed
Enquiry Manual EM How HMRC carries out enquiry work
Compliance Handbook CH Penalties and compliance powers from Finance Act 2007 to Finance Act 2013

VAT guidance sits in its own A to Z of VAT manuals within the collection. The Compliance Handbook and Enquiry Manual are particularly useful when a client receives a compliance check letter, because they show the procedure the officer is meant to follow.

What is the legal status of a manual?

A manual is guidance, not legislation. HMRC’s Admin Law Manual at ADML1200 explains that the department has a duty to collect the correct amount of tax as required by statute and has only limited discretion, under section 5 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005, to do otherwise. Its starting point is that HMRC is not bound by any advice it gives that is incorrect in law.

BIM00520 describes HMRC’s role as explaining how it considers the law should be applied, which does not extend to advising people on how to arrange their affairs. The manuals therefore record HMRC’s view. A tribunal applies the legislation and case law, and if the manual says something different, the legislation wins.

HMRC’s public guidance on relying on its advice says there is no general right of appeal against advice and information HMRC provides, except where the law sets one out, and that if the courts change the understanding of the law HMRC must collect tax on the new understanding, although it may choose to apply that only going forward.

Can you rely on a manual if HMRC departs from it?

Sometimes, but not through the normal appeal route. HMRC says a person may be able to rely on incorrect advice and information where it was reasonable to expect to do so and it would be very unfair for HMRC to act differently, and lists GOV.UK pages among the forms of advice. It will consider whether the full facts were given, whether the guidance was clear and certain, and whether the person relied on it to their detriment.

The Admin Law Manual’s detailed tests deal with case specific advice. ADML1100 says published guidance cases are different, and staff who think a customer was misled by published guidance should consult the relevant technical team. Legitimate expectation is a public law concept: in HMRC v Abdul Noor [2013] UKUT 071 (TCC) the Upper Tribunal held that the First tier Tribunal had no jurisdiction to consider a legitimate expectation argument in that VAT appeal. The detail is covered in relying on HMRC advice. Where real certainty is needed before a transaction, a non statutory clearance gives HMRC’s view on the specific facts, which BIM00520 says a customer can rely on in most circumstances.

Why is some content withheld?

Some pages show a note that content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000. PTM011300, for example, withholds the section on how staff request technical advice. Withheld passages tend to concern internal process, risk assessment or investigation technique. Other manuals state the opposite: BIM00510 tells readers they are seeing the whole manual with nothing hidden. If a key paragraph is withheld, the published parts and the legislation are what you have to work with.

How do you find the right guidance quickly?

  1. Start from the legislation, so you know which provision you are researching.
  2. Pick the manual from the collection’s A to Z, using its introduction to check you have the right one.
  3. Drill down through the contents pages rather than jumping straight to a search hit. BIM00510 strongly recommends studying the contents pages of each chapter so detail is not taken out of context.
  4. Use the manual’s own search box for specific terms or case names.
  5. Check the updates page for recent changes to the pages you rely on.
  6. Record the page reference and the date you read it on the file.

Illustration only. A sole trader asks whether interest on a loan used partly to fund drawings is deductible. The adviser starts at the BIM contents, moves to the specific deductions chapter on interest, and reads the related pages on funding the business, withdrawal of capital and overdrawn capital accounts together. The updates page shows those pages were amended on 1 July 2026 with clearer context and new examples, so the adviser rereads the current versions before advising, and notes the page references and date in the working papers.

What mistakes do people make when citing the manuals?

  • Quoting a manual as if it were the law, rather than as HMRC’s view of the law.
  • Relying on one page without the surrounding chapter, missing a condition or exception set out elsewhere.
  • Using an archived or superseded page without checking the current version and updates page.
  • Assuming that a manual being wrong will win a tax appeal; the tribunal applies the legislation.
  • Giving no page reference or date, which makes it hard to show later what guidance was relied on if HMRC opens an enquiry or the client complains.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.