»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp

Before taking a decision to approve an application you must be satisfied that the main criteria are met:

• there is no evidence of illicit trading indicating the business is a serious threat to the revenue (assessments, seizures, penalties and so on)
• key persons involved in the business (directors, beneficiaries, other guiding minds) have not been previously involved in significant revenue non-compliance, or fraud, either within excise or other regimes
• there are no connections between the businesses, or key persons involved in the business, with other known non-compliant or fraudulent businesses
• key persons involved in the business have no criminal convictions which are relevant, for example, offences involving any dishonesty or links to organised criminal activity - HMRC will normally disregard convictions that are spent provided there are no wider indications that the person in question continues to pose a serious threat to the revenue (an ‘unspentâ€� conviction is one that has not expired under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974)
• the application is accurate and complete and there has been no attempt to deceive
• there has not been negligent or persistent failures to comply with any HMRC record-keeping requirements
• the applicant, or key persons in the business, have not previously attempted to avoid approval and traded without approval
• the business has provided sufficient evidence of its commercial viability and/or credibility
• there are no outstanding, unmanaged HMRC debts or a history of poor payment
• the business has in place satisfactory due diligence procedures to protect it from trading in illicit supply-chains.

Whilst you should take all the above criteria into account, they are not exhaustive. You may refuse approval to a wholesaler for reasons other than those listed if you have other justifiable concerns and evidence that the applicant is a serious risk to the revenue. Equally, there may be some cases where particular failures of the criteria on their own would mean refusal or revocation is unreasonable and disproportionate. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp full facts of each case must always be considered. You must consider whether the failures in question are evidence that the person would pose a serious threat to the revenue if approved as a wholesaler and make your decision according to that test.