A client can nominate their agent to receive a tax repayment on their behalf, using the nomination section of a Self Assessment return, a claim form or a letter, or boxes 945 to 970 of a company’s CT600. The client stays legally entitled to the money and can withdraw the nomination at any time before HMRC pays. Fee charging agents who receive Income Tax or PAYE repayments through postal claim forms must have an agent services account, quote their agent reference number and obtain the client’s advanced electronic signature within six months of the claim.

What is a repayment nomination?

HMRC’s Self Assessment Manual at SAM110130 explains that a Self Assessment return or claim form R38 lets a taxpayer nominate someone else to receive a repayment, and that a taxpayer may also authorise a nominee by letter. The key features are:

  • the taxpayer remains the person legally entitled to the repayment;
  • HMRC issues the repayment to the nominee at its discretion;
  • the taxpayer may withdraw the nomination at any time before the repayment is issued, and can do so by telephone if the repayment is to go to the taxpayer instead.

For an agent this means a nomination is a payment instruction, not security for fees. The manual itself notes that agents often ask clients to nominate them so they can be sure of getting their fees, and that clients can undo this.

How is a nomination different from an assignment?

An assignment transferred the legal right to the repayment, so HMRC had no option but to pay the assignee and the assignment could only be revoked in writing by both parties. Some agents used assignments to make their fee recovery certain. SAM110130 records that new legislation from 15 March 2023 removed the right to assign repayments: any assignment HMRC receives on or after that date is legally invalid and the repayment remains the taxpayer’s property. Ordinary nominations by return, R38 or letter are unaffected.

Even before that change, section 133 of the Finance Act 2008 meant that a transferred repayment was first set against the original taxpayer’s own debts to HMRC, so an assignee could never receive more than the taxpayer would have done. The same logic applies in practice to nominations: HMRC repays only what is left after any set off.

What do fee charging repayment agents need?

HMRC’s guidance on receiving Income Tax or PAYE repayments on behalf of others applies to anyone who charges fees to submit claims and is nominated to receive the repayment, on the P87, R40 and Marriage Allowance Transfer Claim print and post forms. The agent must:

  • register for an agent services account and enter its agent reference number in the nomination section;
  • use a name and address that match the agent services account;
  • obtain the client’s authority through an advanced electronic signature process, which must be uniquely linked to the signer, under the signer’s sole control and able to detect later changes;
  • make sure the client’s signature was given within the six months before the nomination is sent, or the claim will not be processed;
  • keep evidence that it has bought an advanced electronic signature solution, such as a headed letter, receipt or emailed invoice, and produce it on request.

Handwritten signatures are accepted only if HMRC has determined the client is digitally excluded before they sign, and the client must contact the Income Tax helpline to arrange that; the agent cannot do it for them. HMRC may also ask for evidence of individual clients’ authorisations in routine compliance checks. The advanced electronic signature rule applies from 6 April 2025.

For job expense claims see form P87 and for leavers see claiming tax back after leaving a job.

How do company repayments work?

The CT600 has a section for “Payments to a person other than the company”. HMRC’s Company Tax Return guide says the nomination must be authorised by completing boxes 945, 950 and 970 every time a return is submitted, with the nominee’s name, address and reference in boxes 955 to 965. The bank details in boxes 920 to 940 must then be the nominee’s, and HMRC uses only the details on the latest return.

Payable research and development credits are restricted. Box 943 may only be ticked, and a nominee used for those credits, where the nominee is a connected party, exceptional circumstances make direct payment impracticable, the claim was first made before 1 April 2024, or the nominee holds an assignment made before 22 November 2023. Otherwise the credit can only be paid to the company. HMRC’s guidance refers to CIRD81805 for detail. In practice most payable credits must therefore go to the company’s own account, even where an adviser prepared the claim; see R&D tax relief.

Does a 64-8 authority let the agent receive repayments?

Not by itself. HMRC’s guidance on authorising an agent says an agent authorised for Self Assessment can, among other things, provide bank details to HMRC when a repayment is due. That is not the same as the money going to the agent. For the repayment to be paid to the agent, the client must make a nomination on the return, claim form, CT600 or letter. For tax credits the guidance says an authorised agent can act for the client but cannot receive payments.

What controls does HMRC apply?

  • Set off. HMRC sets repayments against other tax the taxpayer owes before paying the balance, whoever is nominated.
  • Repayment holds. SAM110125 explains that a “No repayment” signal is set automatically when a section 9A enquiry is registered, and may be set manually for reasons including outstanding debt or a deed of assignment. The repayment is then held for review.
  • Registration and evidence. Claims naming an unregistered agent, a mismatched address or an out of date signature are not processed.
  • Standards. HMRC measures agent services account applications against the HMRC Standard for Agents.

How should a practice handle client consent?

Because a nomination can be withdrawn, the commercial agreement belongs in the engagement letter, not the tax form. A sound approach is to:

  1. explain in writing that the repayment will come to the practice, what fee will be deducted and when the balance will be paid on;
  2. obtain consent separately for each claim, using the required signature process where it applies;
  3. treat money received as client money under the practice’s professional body rules until the fee is properly due;
  4. record any withdrawal of the nomination and stop relying on it immediately.

How might a nomination work in practice?

Illustration only. A practice prepares a client’s Self Assessment return showing a £1,200 repayment. The engagement letter says the practice’s £300 fee for the claim may be deducted from any repayment it receives. The client nominates the practice on the return. Before HMRC pays, the client phones HMRC and asks for the repayment to go to their own account. HMRC pays the client, and the practice must invoice the £300 in the normal way. Had HMRC paid the practice, it would have held the £1,200 as client money, taken the £300 fee as agreed and passed £900 to the client promptly.

What mistakes do agents make?

  • Treating a nomination as a guarantee of payment.
  • Still sending letters of assignment, which have been invalid since 15 March 2023.
  • Using wet signatures, or signatures more than six months old, on postal claims.
  • Forgetting to complete the CT600 authority boxes on every return, including amended returns.
  • Using a nominee for R&D payable credits outside the permitted conditions.

Solar Protect runs fee protection schemes for accountancy and bookkeeping practices. See how our accountant schemes work or read fee protection schemes for accountants.

Sources

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.