SA402 Form: Registering a Company or Trust as a Partner

SA402 is the HMRC form that registers a partner who is not an individual, like a company, a trust or another partnership, for Self Assessment. The person responsible for that partner fills it in and signs it. The finished form has to reach HMRC by post, even if you fill it in on screen.

A company that already files Corporation Tax returns still needs this form when it joins a partnership. The SA402 is the request HMRC uses to set the company up as a partner and link it to the partnership’s Self Assessment record.

If you need to register a non-individual partner for Self Assessment, this page covers a company, a trust, another partnership or LLP, and a pension scheme. Two things change what you’ll do.

The type of partner decides who signs and which reference numbers the form wants, and the way the partnership itself was set up (by SA400 or through Companies House) decides how you answer one of its questions. It’s worth checking both before you start.

Which partners need an SA402, not an SA401

The SA402 form covers any partner that isn’t a person. The examples printed on the form, together with its separate question on pension schemes, point to five kinds of partner:

• A company that has joined a partnership as one of its partners.
• Another partnership, including an LLP or a limited partnership.
• A trust, where one of the trustees completes the form.
• A registered pension scheme, which has its own question on the form.
• A county council, which the form names as an example partner type.

If the partner is a person, this is the wrong form. An individual partner registers on an SA401, and the SA401 guide for individual partners covers that route in full. Every partner fills in a form of its own, even one that’s already registered for Self Assessment.

The two forms overlap on Self Assessment but part ways on National Insurance. An SA401 also registers an individual for Class 2, while HMRC’s Self Assessment Manual says a partner that isn’t an individual has no Class 2 notification to make.

The partnership needs registering as well, as a separate step. An ordinary partnership does this by registering the partnership with an SA400, which its nominated partner signs.

Who signs the SA402 depends on the partner

The person responsible for the partner signs the form. The declaration asks which capacity you’re signing in, and the right box depends on what kind of partner it is:

• Tick company secretary if you’re signing for a company, since that’s the example HMRC gives for a company partner.
• Tick nominated partner if the partner is itself a partnership, because the form says its nominated partner must complete it.
• Tick trustee if the partner is a trust, because the form says a trustee must complete it.
• Tick agent if you’re an agent completing the form, remembering that a partnership or trust partner’s form must be completed by its nominated partner or trustee.
• Tick other if none of those fits, and give details in the space provided.

Signing as a nominated partner or trustee means adding your own UTR to the declaration, so have yours to hand.

Authority for an agent to deal with HMRC on the partner’s behalf comes from form 64-8, or from an online authorisation your agent sets up. A 64-8 can travel in the same envelope as the SA402.

The references the SA402 asks for

The online version of the form can’t be saved partway through, so collect the details first. What you’ll need depends on the partner:

• If the partner has registered for Self Assessment or Corporation Tax before, you’ll need its UTR.
• An LLP or limited partnership partner will have a Company Registration Number (CRN), and you’ll need it.
• For a partner that’s a registered pension scheme, you’ll need its Pension Scheme Tax Reference, which the form labels Pension Scheme Reference Number.
• You’ll need the partnership’s name and address, plus its UTR if you know it.
• You’ll need the day the partner became a member of the partnership.
• If you’re signing as the nominated partner or a trustee, you’ll need your own UTR as well.

On top of those, the form asks for the partner’s business address and phone number, whether the partner is UK resident, and what the partnership’s business does. You can read every question in advance on the SA402 form on GOV.UK, which runs to two pages.

SA402 online still ends in the post

There’s an SA402 online version, but it’s a form you fill in, not a service that sends it. HMRC’s SA402 guidance says this kind of partner is registered by post, and you can prepare the form in any of three ways:

• Complete the online version in one sitting, then print it.
• Fill in the PDF on screen using Adobe Reader, then print it.
• Print the blank PDF and fill it in by hand.

Whichever you choose, the signed form goes to the address printed on it. On the current edition, dated 08/23, that’s HMRC’s National Insurance Contributions and Employer Office, postcode BX9 1AN.

You can post it with a 64-8, the partnership’s SA400 and any SA401s, but HMRC asks for nothing else to be attached. The helpline printed on the form is 0300 200 3500, or +44 191 203 7010 from outside the UK.

HMRC usually gets in touch within 15 days of receiving the form, though it can take longer at busy times. If three weeks pass without contact, HMRC’s online tool shows when you can expect a reply.

When the partnership has no SA400

LLPs and limited partnerships that registered at Companies House on 25 October 2010 or later are registered with HMRC automatically, so they don’t send an SA400. Their partners still have to be registered, on an SA401 or an SA402.

Question 13 on the SA402 deals with this. It asks whether an SA400 has been completed for the partnership, and your answer takes you one of three ways:

• If an SA400 has been completed, answer yes and go on to the partnership’s UTR.
• If none has been completed and it’s an ordinary partnership, or an LLP or LP that registered at Companies House before 25 October 2010, the partnership needs to register on an SA400.
• If none has been completed and it’s an LLP or LP registered on 25 October 2010 or later, you enter the partnership’s CRN instead.

The same form applies when a company or trust joins a partnership that’s already registered. HMRC’s Partnership Manual says new partners in an existing partnership are notified on an SA401 or SA402.

Where enough join at once, HMRC may agree to take their details on a single spreadsheet instead of a form for each.

How a company partner reports its partnership profits

Once you’ve registered a company as a partner in a partnership, HMRC links the company’s record to the partnership’s. HMRC’s Partnership Manual explains that the company has to be set up in Self Assessment so its UTR can be tied to the partnership.

After corporate partner registration, the reporting happens on the company’s own return. For a company in a trading partnership, its slice of the profits goes on its own company tax return.

The amount is the share allocated to the company in the partnership return, and the partnership tax guide covers that return from the partnership’s side.

There’s no separate partnership page on a Company Tax Return. The share sits alongside the company’s other profits, while the tax computation keeps the partnership’s trade apart from any trade the company runs in its own right.

The form asks for any UTR the company already holds. HMRC’s Self Assessment Manual says registration is complete once a UTR has been allocated, with every partner holding its own and no one holding more than one.

Getting your SA402 to HMRC

The SA402 runs to two pages. Getting it right starts with knowing what kind of partner you’re registering, because that decides who signs and which references go on the form.

Gather those references before you open the online version, since it can’t be saved halfway through. Print the form, sign it in the right capacity and post it to the address printed on it, with the partnership’s SA400 and any SA401s if they’re going at the same time.

Where the partnership is an LLP or limited partnership that registered at Companies House on 25 October 2010 or later, its CRN takes the place of an SA400. Individual partners in the same business use a different form, and the SA401 guide explains how their registration works.

Key Takeaways

• The SA402 registers a partner that isn’t an individual, for example a company, a trust, another partnership or a pension scheme, for Self Assessment.
• The person responsible for the partner signs, for example a company secretary, the partnership’s nominated partner or a trustee.
• Registration is by post, even when you fill the form in using HMRC’s online version.
• For an LLP or LP that registered at Companies House on 25 October 2010 or later, the SA402 takes the partnership’s CRN in place of an SA400.
• HMRC is usually in touch within 15 days of getting the form, and busy periods can stretch that.
• When the partnership trades, a company partner’s share of the profit goes into the company’s own Corporation Tax return.