The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) has backed House of Lords recommendations that unregulated tax advisers be brought into regulation.

It wants to see them required to join a professional body and be regulated by those bodies.

It believes this is a quicker route than new statutory regulation of tax advisers.

It is estimated by HMRC that one in three tax advisers in the UK are not regulated by a professional body.

There are believed to be more than 40,000 tax agents in the UK offering tax advice, many of them working as accountants, bookkeepers and tax advisers. Some are only partly regulated or unregulated.

Following a HMRC report, a House of Lords Committee has suggested that the Government should now consult on options for how tax advisers currently outside the professional bodies might be brought within a regulatory framework.

The 9,000-member ATT, the trade body for tax specialists, says it is ready to work with HMRC and other tax professional bodies on interim action to help taxpayers find reliable tax advice via a register of tax advisers.

The recommendations appear in the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee Finance Bill Sub-Committee’s report, New powers for HMRC: fair and proportionate? which was published on 19 December.

The committee is looking at ways to raise standards in the tax advice market and to tackle promoters of unlawful tax avoidance schemes.

If the recommendations are turned into legislation HMRC could gain new powers to force all tax advisers to be members of professional bodies and be regulated by those bodies.

Jeremy Coker, president of the ATT, said: “We strongly agree with the Lords’ conclusion that the proposed measures to target promoters are unlikely to be sufficient to drive the hard core out of business and that the Government should continue to look for new approaches to tackling promoters. We think that a radical solution is needed and that this is likely to require consideration of the wider tax advice market.

“We believe an approach which builds on the strengths of the existing professional bodies is the best way forward in this area. That would be more cost-effective, less disruptive and better for consumer protection than the alternative of some form of statutory regulation.”

“We welcome the Lords’ recognition of the role that professional bodies can play in raising advice standards for taxpayers and their call for HMRC to work closely with bodies such as ourselves to help taxpayers source reliable tax advice, for example through our suggestion of a combined register of tax advisers.”