UK-based credit reference agency or similar financial organisations are able to apply for authorisation to receive non-financial VAT registration data for the purpose of credit scoring; anti-fraud checking; and compliance with other financial regulations.

The data file will cover all VAT-registered businesses, not individual businesses or grouped by trade sector or geographical location, and HMRC outlines the information available for each business.

Potential users need to be authorised to receive the data, have the appropriate software and use security management systems accredited to ISO27001 standards and certified by an independent accreditation body.

Applicants, including credit providers, credit reference agencies, banks and other financial services providers, will need to complete an initial questionnaire in order to be approved by HMRC.

They will need to pay a fee to HMRC to cover the costs incurred in administering the process and sharing the information. This includes an application fee of £265 and a data usage agreement fee of £135, while a £10,000 data transfer fee is payable when they receive the first data transfer and each year whilst the data usage agreement is in place.

Authorised recipients will be advised in advance of any changes to the data transfer fee, which may go up or down.

The data may not be passed to any other parties, except with HMRC consent. There are sanctions for data misuse, including a criminal sanction for unlawful disclosure of information relating to identifiable businesses.

HMRC says it will only agree to the sharing of specified data items, not the onward sharing of the full VAT registration data, except where HMRC is satisfied the third party is a contractor carrying out a process to facilitate use of the data by the original applicant.

Guidance Apply to receive non-financial VAT registration data from HMRC is here.

Report by Pat Sweet