Can accountants accept referral fees?

Ask a room of accountants whether they're allowed to accept a commission for referring a client, and you'll get three answers: no, probably not, and a cautious maybe. The actual position is simpler than the folklore. Both the ACCA and ICAEW codes of ethics permit referral fees. What they require is that you manage the threat to objectivity — and that means telling your client.

Disclosure. That's the hinge.

The codes don't hand you a script, but the shape is consistent: tell the client that you may receive a payment for the introduction, do it before or at the point of referral, and keep a record. Some firms fold it into their engagement letter; others use a short standalone letter per referral. Either works. Silence doesn't.

• Say that a fee or commission may be received.
• Say who pays it — the firm you're introducing to, not the client.
• Keep the evidence.

Done properly, disclosure isn't an awkward confession. It's a professionalism signal — the same instinct that makes you document a tax position. Clients rarely object; what erodes trust is finding out later.

Referral income used to be a handshake economy: invisible, unrecorded, occasionally remembered at Christmas. Regulators and professional bodies have been pushing the other way for a decade, towards evidenced introductions, documented consent and clean paper trails. Firms that build the disclosure habit now aren't just compliant — they're ready for a world where every introduction is tracked. That world is arriving anyway. The only question is whether your referrals earn anything when it does.