The Integrated Administration and Control System: guidance

3. Claiming subsidy

Completing your SAF

The SAF can be filled in and signed by:

• An agent if they have been authorised to do so for the individual or business;
• A company official (for example farm manager) if they have been authorised to do so for the company;
• A sole trader;
• A partner in a partnership if they have been authorised to do so for the partnership;
• A representative of a sheep producer group if they have been authorised to do so for the group, by the group as a whole;
• An Executor of a will.

Completing your SAF on-line

You can submit your SAF on-line at www.ruralpaymentsonline.com. You can get more information about our on-line service at www.ruralpaymentsonline.com or phone 0845 601 7597.

Land and Business Change Form

You must fill in an LBCF to tell us if the information on your SAF 2008 is incorrect because you have:

• changed your business name or structure;
• changed your permanent field boundaries;
• moved whole or part fields between holdings;
• had fields or parcels of land to register for agriculture or forestry use for the first time;
• had fields going out of agriculture; or
• the pre-printed information on your SAF 2008 is incorrect and you have not already told us about this.

If possible you should tell us about these changes by 15 May 2008.

You should also tell us if you make any of the changes described above between 16 May 2008 and 15 May 2009 as soon as they take place.

The LBCF and guidance is available on our website or you can get one from your SGRPID area office.

Businesses

If you are involved in different businesses, and if each business is managed as a separate business you can submit a separate SAF for each business. In most cases we will already have assessed whether the businesses are separate but if we have not we may need to seek more information. We will consider the legal status of each business, how far operations are run separately each day in practice, whether there are separate farm plans and accounts, the independence of decision-making between the separate farms and where the overall economic control of the businesses rests. We may also ask you for partnership agreements, Articles of Association and accounts. Each of these factors is not necessarily conclusive by itself. Ultimately, you must satisfy us that the businesses are separate.

We must check, where businesses are split or created, that they have not been established for the main purpose of avoiding individual limits on aid or penalties. If you tell your SGRPID area office or you submit an LBCF telling them that you have created a new business or that you have changed an existing business, we may need to get more information. SGRPID will withhold (or if paid recover) subsidy if it discovers that businesses have been created for the sole purpose of artificially creating the conditions for subsidy.

If your business structure changes after 15 May 2008, this may affect the aid which you can subsequently claim. You should inform your SGRPID area office immediately, before the changes occur. You will have to complete an LBCF.

Cross Border Applications

If you have land in different parts of the UK, which you manage as part of one business, you must enter the land in each country, in that country's forms. You should submit all of your SAFs to the area office in the country which deals with your main farm unit. Under IACS rules the country to which you submit your SAFs is responsible for the processing and payment of your claim.

Transfer of Land

Your SAF must show the land which you have at 15 May 2008. If, during the IACS year, you take over the whole of a holding which has been claimed or declared by another farmer in 2008, we may be able to transfer the whole area on their SAF to you to support your claims. Your SGRPID area office can provide more information and a transfer application form.