Accountant says doesnt need to sign NDA?

Poshsalt

Hi

I want my accountant to sign a NDA for a food business im running to sign up for VAT, I've send the NDA and they have said "this agreement is not required for VAT registration in UK."

Is that true?

Grumpy_chap

The Accountant is correct that the NDA is not required for VAT registration.
Why do you want the Accountant to sign an NDA?  If you don't trust the Accountant, you should probably find a different one.

MobileSaver

Grumpy_chap said:

The Accountant is correct that the NDA is not required for VAT registration.

As Grumpy_chap says, you do not need a NDA; a UK accountant will be bound by strict laws of confidentiality anyway.

Anything you tell them concerning your business cannot be acted upon or divulged to a third party without your express permission (obviously except regarding the police/HMRC etc.)

Pennywise

As said above, confidentiality is a default requirement of the professional bodies (assuming your accountant is qualified/regulated), so a NDA isn't needed for your protection.

MDMD

MobileSaver said:

Grumpy_chap said:

The Accountant is correct that the NDA is not required for VAT registration.

As Grumpy_chap says, you do not need a NDA; a UK accountant will be bound by strict laws of confidentiality anyway.

Anything you tell them concerning your business cannot be acted upon or divulged to a third party without your express permission (obviously except regarding the police/HMRC etc.)

Unlike in the legal profession, there is no specific law that applies to an accountant over and above any other business relationship.

Most of the bodies will include it in their code of ethics, however but it has no legal force unless you can demonstrate a loss has occurred (in which case you can sue them). Most accountants have Professional Indemnity Insurance for this purpose.

https://www.icaew.com/-/media/corporate/files/members/regulations-standards-and-guidance/ethics/icaew-code-of-ethics-in-one-page.ashx

Poshsalt

The other thing is for registering with VAT they want my driving licene, I sent it was a watermark on and they said its needs to be without. I havent seen anywhere you need ID to register for VAT.

General_Grant

Why don't you just register yourself and not bother using an accountant to charge you for doing so?

Poshsalt

General_Grant said:

Why don't you just register yourself and not bother using an accountant to charge you for doing so?

Hey I thought it was complicated to do. So just ask the accountant.

General_Grant

Poshsalt said:

General_Grant said:

Why don't you just register yourself and not bother using an accountant to charge you for doing so?

Hey I thought it was complicated to do. So just ask the accountant.

VAT registration: How to register - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 
includes, "You do not need to authorise an agent to register you for VAT."

Grumpy_chap

Poshsalt said:

The other thing is for registering with VAT they want my driving licene, I sent it was a watermark on and they said its needs to be without. I havent seen anywhere you need ID to register for VAT.

This might not be to do with the VAT-registration, per se, but if it is a new Accountant, their equivalent of KYC "Know Your Customer" and anti-fraud.

Mistral001

Asking your accountant to sign an NDA, probably has insulted him/her.  As others have said it is something that is usually in the code of conduct of professional bodies or implied by a general  clause.  Even if the accountant is not a member of a professional body, it does not make commercial sense to not adhere to strict confidentiality principles. If they didn't, the word would soon get around and they will lose clients.  In fact a solicitor I once used, mentioned some of his other clients' business to me once.  I dropped him as I began to wonder if he was talking about my business in the same way.