Self Employement

Norvydas

Hello

I believe this topic has been discussed on numerous occasions already, however I cannot seem to find previous threads..

Anyways, can someone please clarify this for me;

Do you need to have a licensed accountants membership with supervisory body (i.e. AAT/ACCA/ACA/ICAEW/CTA) to be able to provide self-employed accounting services?

I have no intention on using AAT logos or MAAT under my name, nor I will require assistance from AAT (I will be working with a family member who has been self-employed accountant for 40+ years). Therefore I am reluctant to re-instate my MAAT membership and then purchase Licensed Accountants subscription.

Can I simply register with ICO, HMRC for AML and purchase PII and start providing accounting services?

I have spoken with my colleagues (Accountants) and they have said that if you are not using AAT/ACCA logos (or other supervisory body) or their initials under your name then you do not need to purchase their subscriptions, all you have to do is to register with HMRC for AML and sort out other legalities such as insurance and ICO. Is this correct?

Thanks.

hal978

If you are MAAT, then you are not allowed to provide self-employed accountancy services without a licence, irrespective of whether or not you add MAAT after your name. AAT will ask you on the MAAT annual renewal application if you are providing these services. If they later discover that you are providing services without a licence, they may launch disciplinary action.

If you are an Affiliate, then you can provide self-employed accountancy services but must register for AML supervision with another body (e.g. HMRC). However HMRC are very slow at registering your business (they can take 45 days, extended each time they require information, as per the ML regulations).

I would also like to add that until you are registered for AML supervision (even if HMRC were to delay your registration), HMRC Agent Maintainer will not register you as an Agent.

Norvydas

@hal978

Thank you for getting back to me, it is much appreciated!

I am no longer MAAT (my subscription has expired at the begging of 2019) and I have no intention of renewing it if I can simply set up AML with HMRC.

I am in discussions with ACCA now as they are saying that I cannot provide any accounting services (apart from basic bookkeeping) while I am their student. Also, they said that even if I am MAAT and register with AAT as Licensed Accountant, while I am ACCA student I cannot provide any accounting services apart from bookkeeping...

Which I think is unfair, however if that is the case then I guess I will stop my ACCA studies as it will be interfering with my career..

Thank you for your response!