Changing accountant mid-year — what records move over, and do I tell HMRC?

You can change accountant mid-year; there is no rule that you must wait until after the year-end accounts. Waiting can be tidier, but it is not required, and staying with a firm that is no longer responsive can cause more risk than a well-planned handover. Avoid a gap in which nobody owns the next filing.

Start with the records that belong to your business. The new accountant should receive bookkeeping up to the handover date, a trial balance, bank reconciliations, sales and purchase records, payroll and PAYE records, VAT returns and workings, previous accounts and tax returns, capital allowances and fixed-asset records, loan and director's loan balances, and details of any open HMRC enquiries or deadlines. Ask for a full export from your accounting software as well, not only PDFs, so the new firm can work with the underlying transactions. Your former accountant's internal working papers are a different matter, but they should still provide the information you reasonably need to continue the work.

Professional clearance is the normal route between firms. Your new accountant will usually write to the old one to confirm there is no reason they should not act, and the old firm should respond promptly. This is also the time to settle the position on fees: check the notice period, pay anything properly due, and get a disengagement letter stating the last date for which the old firm is responsible. Agree the split of work explicitly, for example, that the old firm completes the VAT quarter already started while the new firm takes bookkeeping from a named date, so you are not charged twice for the same task.

For HMRC, the new accountant will normally handle authorisation, but you will need to approve it. Authorisation is service by service, so check corporation tax, VAT, PAYE and self-assessment separately where they apply, and use the online authorisation process or a form 64-8 where the service requires it. You should also check that the old agent is removed once the handover is complete, while making sure any filing that was already in progress is not left without an agent at the deadline. Remember that, even with an agent, the legal responsibility for correct and timely returns remains yours, so keep your own calendar of deadlines and confirm in writing that each authorisation has actually been accepted.