How to check an accountant for MTD

acrenvo.com/guides/mtd-check-an-accountant, last reviewed 31 October 2026

Ruth is fictional, but she is doing what GOV.UK suggests. She lets four flats, and she has decided to hand Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax to an accountant. She has two firms in mind, one recommended by a neighbour and one she found online, and before she speaks to either of them she wants to know what she can check for herself. This guide explains what GOV.UK says about checking a tax agent, and where you can look things up without taking anyone’s word for it.

Why checking matters

GOV.UK starts with a point that surprises many people. Anyone can call themselves a tax agent. They do not have to have qualifications or professional training, and HMRC does not regulate agents.

That does not leave you with nothing to go on, because GOV.UK points to several things that do give a picture of who you are dealing with. They are membership of a professional body, HMRC’s standard for agents, registration with HMRC, and supervision under the money laundering regulations.

Membership of a professional body

GOV.UK explains what membership of a professional body means. Many tax agents and advisers are members of accountancy or tax professional bodies. These provide relevant qualifications and help their members stay up to date through continuous professional training. Professional bodies also review the behaviour of their members and take action if their behaviour falls short of professional standards. Members of professional bodies are also more likely to hold professional indemnity insurance, which can help protect you if things go wrong.

Most of these bodies let you search their members on their own websites. Acrenvo links to five of them, in alphabetical order. We have no arrangement with any of them, and a search result is between you and the body that runs it.

• Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) member search
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) member search
• Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) member search
• Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) member search
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) member search

When Ruth searches, she can see whether the person or firm she has in mind appears under the name they gave her. If they say they belong to a body that is not in this list, that body’s own website is the place to check.

HMRC’s standard for agents

HMRC sets out what it expects of every agent, whether or not they belong to a professional body. The HMRC standard for agents gives guidance on the minimum standards set for all agents and, in particular, those that are not related to any professional body. You can read it on GOV.UK as the HMRC standard for agents, and GOV.UK suggests asking whether an agent knows it and meets it, as the guide to questions to ask before you hire an accountant explains.

Registration with HMRC as a tax adviser

HMRC is bringing in a requirement for paid advisers to register with it. If someone deals with HMRC about another person's tax affairs and gets paid for it, HMRC considers them to be a tax adviser, and they need to register for an agent services account. HMRC is introducing the requirement to register in stages, so when an adviser needs to register depends on their circumstances. An adviser who needs to register for an agent services account and does not do so may not be able to deal with HMRC on behalf of their clients.

HMRC’s press release of 20 July 2026 set out the stages of what HMRC calls Modernising and Mandating Tax Adviser Registration (MMTAR). MMTAR registration opened on 18 May 2026 and is being introduced in phases. Each group has its own window:

• from 18 May 2026 to 18 August 2026, new tax advisers, or advisers dealing with HMRC without an agent services account, Self Assessment account or Corporation Tax account (now closed)
• from 18 August 2026 to 18 November 2026, advisers with a Self Assessment or Corporation Tax account but no agent services account (open now)
• from 18 November 2026 to 18 February 2027, advisers who only provide payroll services (not open yet)
• from 31 December 2026 to 31 March 2027, financial services organisations (not open yet)

The release also listed advisers who already have an agent services account, but its own notes and GOV.UK’s guidance both say they do not need to register again. In the guidance’s words, “If you already have an agent services account, you will not need to register again.” For an adviser whose window has passed, the guidance gives this advice: “If you missed your registration window, or are new to the market, you should register now.”

GOV.UK’s page on registering as a tax adviser is written for advisers, and it does not describe a way for clients to look up whether an adviser has registered. The same account matters for MTD in any case. Your agent needs an agent services account, which is different from the HMRC online services for agents account they may already use. So asking an accountant whether they have one is a fair question either way.

Supervision under the money laundering regulations

Accountants are one of the groups the money laundering regulations cover, which gives you something else to check. The money laundering regulations apply to a number of business sectors, including accountants, and every business they cover must be monitored by a supervisory authority. Under the money laundering regulations, accountancy service providers include accountants who provide accountancy services to clients, and tax advisers and consultants who give clients advice about their tax affairs. The services covered include professional bookkeeping, preparing accounts, and helping with completing and submitting tax returns.

The supervisor can be HMRC or a professional body. An accountancy service provider must register with HMRC for money laundering supervision unless it is already supervised by a professional body, or all its customers are themselves supervised by HMRC or a professional body. GOV.UK names these as the main supervisory bodies for accountants, bookkeepers, tax advisers and other financial advisers:

• Association of Accounting Technicians
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
• Association of International Accountants
• Association of Taxation Technicians
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
• Chartered Institute of Taxation
• Financial Conduct Authority
• Institute of Certified Bookkeepers
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales
• Institute of Financial Accountants
• Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
• Law Society

For a firm that HMRC supervises, there is a public list. HMRC publishes a Supervised Business Register, which you can use to check whether a business is registered with HMRC for money laundering supervision. Only businesses registered for supervision by HMRC appear in it. So a firm that is supervised by one of the professional bodies instead would not be expected to appear on it, and the body itself is the one to ask. For each business, the register lists the:

• registration number
• business name
• trading name
• first part of the postcode
• date the business became supervised
• sectors it is registered for

GOV.UK adds two points that help when you read it. The name a business is registered under may be different from the name you are familiar with, for example if it is included under the registration of another business. There can sometimes be a delay before a business's registration appears on the public register, and businesses still applying will not appear until that process is finished. You may want to contact the business directly to confirm its current registration status. The register is linked from GOV.UK’s page on checking whether a business is registered for money laundering supervision.

Putting the checks together

None of these checks tells Ruth whether a firm will be a good fit for her flats, and GOV.UK does not suggest that any of them does. What they give her is a way to confirm that the people she is about to trust with her tax are who they say they are and answer to someone. The rest of the decision comes from talking to them, which the questions to ask before you hire an accountant help with. The page on choosing an accountant for MTD has more on when handing MTD over tends to make sense. Acrenvo does not recommend any firm, and GOV.UK’s own advice is on its page about how to choose a tax agent.

Questions people ask about checking an accountant