CISR19020 - The Scheme: Agent guidance: Customer Level Agents

A Customer Level Agent (CLA) is an agent that acts for a customer, be that a contractor or a subcontractor, in connection with their Corporation Tax (COTAX) or Self Assessment (SA) tax affairs and who then also deals with that customer’s CIS affairs.

If the parent system (COTAX or SA) holds an authority on form 64-8 for an agent to act, that agent will automatically ‘flow’ onto CIS Reform provided only that the indicator within CIS, ‘inherit agent’, has not been set to ‘no’. So, if a customer already has a record in SA or COTAX and they register for CIS Reform, the name and address of their agent will automatically transfer, by overnight process, onto the customer’s CIS record.

The CLA will then be authorised to act on all CIS matters but will not automatically receive any contractor scheme output. (For example: monthly returns – forms CIS300). This is because the agent’s window automatically defaults to ‘no’ for scheme output. However, if the contractor wants the CLA to receive scheme output, then HMRC must be informed either in writing or through a telephone call to the CIS Helpline. Any such written request should be made to the CIS Subcontractor Registration Team, at NICO (see CISR97070 for the full address).

Where a customer is in SA or COTAX and they register for CIS, the authority in favour of an agent normally extends to all subcontractor registrations and subcontractor output. Again, this is providing that the indicator ‘inherit agent’ has not, at any point, been changed to ‘no’.

Where the subcontractor also acts as a contractor, the CLA will not receive scheme output. However, where a CLA acts on behalf of a contractor they will be able to deal with the verification of subcontractors unless there is already a Scheme Specific Agent ( CISR19030) allocated to the scheme. In that event, only the scheme specific agent will be able to verify subcontractors.

Once the signal has been set so that the CLA is to receive contractor scheme output, this signal will remain in place indefinitely until that signal is changed. This is so even in the case where there is a change in the CLA.

Any changes that are notified concerning an agent’s details by a Contractor or Subcontractor must be separately recorded in SA or COTAX as well as in CIS. So, if the SA or COTAX records have not yet been amended to show the new agent's details, notification on form 64-8 must be passed to the CAAT team based in Longbenton to also update those records.