New Rules on Business Record Retention

One of the perennial problems with the sales of businesses has been the requirement by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that where such a sale constitutes a Transfer of a Going Concern (TOGC), the vendor was required to transfer the records of the business to the purchaser. This has caused many problems where the vendor subsequently needed to have access to the records (for example, to deal with a past tax issue which has arisen after the sale).

HMRC have at long last reacted to pressure put upon them by the professions and others and have announced that the requirement to transfer the business records has been replaced by a requirement that the vendor provides the purchaser with all the information necessary to enable the purchaser to comply with his VAT obligations.
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