Case Ownership (Introduction)

Only one CT processing office and one Debt Management office have ownership of a particular COTAX case at any one time. The COTAX system allocates ownership by post code.

A CT processing office can transfer a period of responsibility for one or more APs to another office but will still retain responsibility for the case.

Under the Self Assessment enquiry regime, there must be only one case owner. Therefore Special Civil Investigations (SCI) will take over full case ownership for some enquiries under CTSA. This will include the transfer of all papers and computer records.

Debt Management offices should not transfer periods of responsibility because IDMS only recognises one Debt Management office (including the EIS (Enforcement & Insolvency Service) office) as being responsible for all unpaid liabilities for a Head of Duty for a particular company.

The owning CT processing office is usually the office in whose area the company's Registered Office is situated. If the company is not of a type to have a registered office, the owning CT processing office will usually be the office in whose area the company's principle place of business is situated. If the company does not have any premises, for example, a members' club, the owning office will be the office in whose area the club's secretary or treasurer can be contacted. COTAX works this out from the postcode of the club's secretary or treasurer's address.

Charities and their wholly owned subsidiary companies are dealt with by HMRC Charities, Assets and Residence (CAR). If you come across a case in a local office and are unsure whether it should be transferred to CAR send the file to

• CAR Bootle (292200) (Room 40) for cases registered in England and Wales or Northern Ireland
  
  Or
  
  
• CAR Edinburgh (297800) for cases registered in Scotland

Prominently mark the file 'On Loan For Review', with a covering memo describing the doubtful point. CAR will advise you what to do next.

A Debt Management office case owner will be allocated when an AP is passed for local action. COTAX will identify the owning office as follows

• If there is an owning Debt Management office already shown in Function VTPR (View Taxpayer), it will identify that office
  
  
• If no owning office is currently shown, it will identify the Debt Management office associated with the postcode of the company address
  
  
• If the company address does not have a postcode it will identify the Debt Management office associated with the owning CT processing office

Where exceptionally COTAX cannot determine the owning Debt Management office, an LA notice will be printed in Banking Operations. These include cases where Banking Operations has been set up as the Debt Management office owner for certain LBS offices. In these circumstances the Banking Operations nominated officer should follow the Action Guide 'Transferring A Case To Another Debt Management Office' in this section.

Information for Debt Management offices relating to transferring a case to the EIS (Enforcement & Insolvency Service) office is in section 'Transfers to EIS (Enforcement & Insolvency Service) Office' of the 'Pursuit' business area.

A non-resident company that is not trading through a permanent establishment or agency in the UK but wishes to carry out construction work in the UK, must apply the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). A COTAX record is needed in order to set up a CIS record, even where there is no liability to CT. The Centre for Non-Residents (CNR) in Nottingham deals with these cases. You should not set up a COTAX record for these companies. If you receive an enquiry from such a company, ask them to contact the CNR on the telephone number shown below. In your day to day work, if you find a COTAX record owned by your office for a company in this position, you should take the following action

• Confirm that your Technical Caseworker is satisfied that the non-resident company is not trading in the UK through a permanent establishment or agency
  
  
• Use Function TRCA (Transfer case(s)) to transfer ownership of the COTAX record to Office Identity number 290400
  
  
• Send form CT48A, the CIS32 folder and the company's file to