Getting advance HMRC clearance before you move is the difference between certainty and a costly surprise. We handle the whole application for you.
If you're reshaping your business into a group — most often by inserting a holding company (HoldCo) above your existing trading company (TradeCo) — the whole thing usually hangs on a set of generous tax reliefs that switch off the tax that would otherwise land on you when you make the move. Here's the catch: those reliefs only apply where the restructure is genuinely commercial rather than a way to dodge tax. That is exactly where HMRC clearance comes in, and getting it right up front is the difference between sleeping soundly and worrying about a brown envelope two years later.
This guide explains what advance HMRC clearance actually is, when you need it and when you don't, which statutory clearances apply, what a good application looks like, and how the process works in practice. It is the procedural companion to our guide on the share-for-share exchange — and it sits within our wider guide to UK group structures.
Advance clearance is written confirmation from HMRC, obtained before you carry out a transaction, that it will not treat your restructure as tax avoidance. Several of the reliefs that make a group restructure tax-neutral come with anti-avoidance rules attached. Those rules say the relief only applies where the deal is done for bona fide commercial reasons and not as part of a scheme whose main purpose is to avoid tax.