Confirm an applicant's tax responsibilities for taxi, private hire or scrap metal licence applications

Licensing authorities must carry out extra checks if an individual, company or any type of partnership applies for a licence:

• for the first time
• of the same type they have already held but which has not been valid for a year or more

Applicants may need to complete a tax check if they’re applying for a licence for one of the following:

• taxi driver
• private hire driver
• private hire vehicle operator (England and Wales only)
• booking office (Scotland only)
• mobile (itinerant) scrap metal collector
• scrap metal dealer site

The rules for completing a tax check changed on 4 April 2022 in England and Wales, and will change on 2 October 2023 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Read the get tax check confirmation guidance if the applicant:

• already has a licence of the same type that is still valid
• has a licence of the same type that stopped being valid less than a year ago

What an applicant should provide

First-time applicants must give you confirmation that they are aware of the guidance about their tax obligations.

If the applicant is a partner in a partnership, they can give confirmation on behalf of all the other partners.

If the confirmation is not included with their application you must ask them for it and cannot grant or refuse an application without it.

What to tell the applicant

You must make the applicant aware that HMRC has powers to obtain information from licensing authorities. We suggest using the following wording:

‘Schedule 23 to Finance Act 2011 (Data Gathering Powers) and Schedule 36 to Finance Act 2008 (Information and Inspection Powers), grant HMRC powers to obtain relevant information from third parties. This includes licensing bodies being required to provide information about licence applicants.’

You must also give applicants who do not need to complete a tax check the following GOV.UK website addresses for HMRC guidance about tax registration obligations:

• www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment
• www.gov.uk/corporation-tax
• www.gov.uk/income-tax/how-you-pay-income-tax

What you need to record

You must keep a record of when you received the applicant’s confirmation. You may want to keep it for the same length of time you keep their licence application.

You’ll need to record that the applicant has confirmed they are aware of the guidance. You can do this by adding a declaration onto the application form.

We suggest the following wording for individual applicants:

‘I confirm that I am aware of the content of HMRC guidance relating to my tax registration obligations.’

We suggest the following wording if the applicant is a partner in a partnership and giving confirmation on behalf of all the other partners:

‘I confirm that I am aware of the content of HMRC guidance relating to our tax registration obligations.’