Making a complaint

Making a complaint – the first steps

The Taxation Disciplinary Board (TDB) deals with complaints against qualified tax advisers. That means tax advisers who are members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation or the Association of Taxation Technicians. They will usually have the letters CTA or ATT after their name.

If you are unsure whether your tax adviser belongs to one of these organisations, you can enquire at the address shown under Contacts.

Your tax adviser does not want unhappy customers. So you should make sure that the firm or adviser dealing with your tax affairs knows about any concerns you may have and has a chance to put things right when needed.

This is why the business or adviser you think is responsible for a problem should have the chance to look into any complaint – before the TDB steps in.

The Professional Rules and Practice Guidelines (PRPG) for members can be found on the CIOT and ATT websites, and outlines in chapter 9 the recommendation for members to have in place a procedure to handle complaints. This guidance should assist in your correspondence, ensuring your complaint is taken seriously and dealt with appropriately by the member.

If you don’t know who to complain to at the business, or you’re unsure about anything, get in touch with us. We will contact the right person for you, telling them that you have a complaint they need to look into.

Please contact us using the details as shown in our ‘Contact‘ section.

What to do next

If you’re not happy with how the business deals with your complaint, we may be able to help.

If you’d like us to look into your complaint, we will need you to fill in either our online complaint form or paper form below. This will help us understand what exactly your complaint is about. You can phone us to request a form. Or you can download the form which is on this site.

Before you complete the form, you should read about our procedures, which are set out in the Guidance for the Public. They will tell you how we work, and what we can and cannot do.

When you have completed our complaint form, please send it back to us by post. Your handwritten signature is important to show us that you vouch for its contents and agree to us copying your correspondence to the adviser. You will also probably have other documents that you need to post to us with your completed form.