HMRC has asked me to sign a Certificate of Tax Position. Should I?
Last reviewed 31 August 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts
- What this letter is
- A declaration form enclosed with HMRC's offshore letters, asking you to tick a statement about your tax position and sign it.
- Who gets it
- The certificate is a form enclosed with HMRC's offshore letters. It asks you to tick one statement about your tax position and sign a declaration that your answer is correct and complete.
- Is the deadline legally binding?
- Where this letter gives a reply date, the letter sets it, not the law. The deadline section below explains what that means and what ignoring it can cost.
- Your options at a glance
- Reply by letter instead · Sign it · Take advice first
The covering letter usually gives 30 days.
There is no legal obligation to sign or return the certificate. That is not this site's opinion: the Chartered Institute of Taxation records HMRC agreeing it, and HMRC accepts a reply by ordinary letter instead. Extensions can be requested.
The covering letter does still need answering in some form. Silence leads to follow up, and can lead to a compliance check, with a later disclosure treated as prompted.
Source: CIOT member guidance, Sept 2024; CMS, 24 Nov 2022; Macfarlanes, 17 Sep 2025; ICAEW letters guidance
Why you got it
HMRC encloses it partly to cut down on follow up work when people do not reply. It is HMRC's form, but no law created it.
To tick one of the statements, sign, and return it. The declaration is not limited to one tax year and has no minimum amount, and it acknowledges that dishonestly making a false statement to evade tax is a criminal offence.
Holding the letter now? Paste it into the checker for a plain-English identification.
Your options, honestly
The professional bodies' published position is that unless your affairs are very straightforward, a short accurate letter is usually preferable to the certificate, because it lets you explain rather than compress everything into one sweeping tick. HMRC accepts this.
Reasonable where your affairs are genuinely simple and you are certain nothing needs disclosing, for any year. Certainty is the test the declaration itself sets.
If there is any chance something needs disclosing, or old or offshore years might be involved, speak to an adviser before responding in any form. The response you give shapes what follows.
You may owe nothing
If your affairs are right, you can say exactly that in a short letter, keep a copy, and keep the evidence that supports it.
If you do nothing
Ignoring the whole letter brings a follow up, then risk assessment, and possibly an enquiry. Answering the letter without the certificate is an accepted middle path.
The letters themselves say it: if your health or personal circumstances make dealing with this difficult, you can tell HMRC and they can give you extra support. That is a standing HMRC service, and using it is normal.
Already past the date in your letter? Read this before anything else.
Questions worth asking an adviser
- Given my affairs, is a letter response better than the certificate for me?
- Do any old years or offshore matters make this riskier than it looks?
- Will you draft or check my response before it goes?
- Should we ask for more time first?
Keep the date without keeping the worry
Letters like this give a reply window. Put the date somewhere that is not your head.
Want a professional to look at it?
Some letters are worth handing to a specialist, and knowing when is half the value of a check. An adviser will treat what you say in confidence and will not judge how it got here. If we cannot point you anywhere useful, we will say so.
You can deal with HMRC directly, free, without any adviser. If money is tight: TaxAid (low incomes, older people included) and Citizens Advice help for free.
If Tax Letters ever introduces you to a firm, the firm may pay for the introduction. You never pay Tax Letters for it, and it never changes what these pages say. How Tax Letters is funded.