Tax transparency - Senior accounting officer report

The senior accounting officer (SAO) of a 'large company' will in future have to take reasonable steps to ensure that the company and each of its subsidiaries establishes and maintains 'appropriate tax accounting arrangements'. In discussions with HMRC, PwC has determined that HMRC did not envisage this being a big compliance burden. However, HMRC will have to work within the framework of the legislation and that is likely to extend to all the processes which result in numbers being reported on tax returns, not just the accounting system itself. A number of further clarifications have been elicited.

34% of companies we polled saw the SAO regime as requiring a reasonably significant exercise to ensure compliance, but at the same time roughly the same number saw it as an opportunity to drive improvements such as reducing manual interventions.
Click here to read more about how companies are preparing for the SAO requirements.

View the latest webcasts

• In this webcast PwC specialists explore how groups have been dealing with key human resource aspects of the SAO sign-off and how groups are making full use of payroll software and other systems.
  SAO: Emerging HR issues webcast
• In this, the second of a series of webcasts on the implications of the introduction of an SAO, PwC specialists look at corporate issues, sharing our experiences and recent discussions with HMRC.
  SAO: emerging CT issues webcast
• In this webcast PwC specialists share their experiences of the areas of VAT risk that many groups have been identifying and how they have been addressing the level of comfort the SAO needs in order to be able to report to HMRC appropriately.
  SAO: Emerging VAT issues webcast
• In this webcast, PwC specialists discuss the relevant Finance Bill provisions in light of the scheduled debate on the proposals this week in the House of Commons.
  Tax transparency and the SAO webcast

Click on the links below to download the latest Tax transparency - update bulletins:

• "What has changed since the Budget announcement?", August 2009 - (Adobe PDF Format - 76K)
• "What has changed since the Budget announcement?", June 2009 - (Adobe PDF Format - 30K)
• Are your systems delivering for tax compliance? - (Adobe PDF Format - 29K)