HMRC disclosure opportunities June 2023

This is a freeview 'At a glance' guide to current tax campaigns and disclosure opportunities. 

HMRC currently have several tax campaigns, or disclosure opportunities, open. Any clients who might have undeclared liabilities in these areas should be encouraged to make disclosures to HMRC sooner rather than later to minimise penalties, interest and the pain of a formal investigation.

In recent years HMRC have created a series of campaigns and settlement or disclosure opportunities aimed towards:

• Business sectors such as plumbers, doctors and solicitors and landlords.
• Types of investment income such as from offshore assets or second homes.
• Compliance failures such as outstanding VAT or Self Assessment Tax Returns
• Tax planning schemes such as Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs), remuneration trusts and Employer Financed Retirement Benefits Schemes (EFRBS).

Each campaign broadly follows the same pattern:

• HMRC will identify taxpayers from a specific group who it considers may have outstanding tax liabilities.
• HMRC offers taxpayers the opportunity to make a voluntary disclosure using a published notification form or by other agreed means. In some cases such as Disguised remuneration schemes, the offer is to reach a settlement with HMRC.
• Ordinarily, the taxpayer will first notify HMRC of their intention to make a disclosure, after which they will have further time to fully disclose what is owned and make a payment to HMRC.
• Making a voluntary disclosure under a scheme will enable taxpayers to benefit from reduced Penalties and in some cases to avoid penalties altogether.
• Most disclosure opportunities have a fixed closing date, after which HMRC may investigate any identified taxpayers who did not come forward voluntarily.

HMRC have a number of tools they can use to identify non-compliant taxpayers, including obtaining information from third parties, reviewing details of property transactions registered with the Land Registry and the use of software to search the internet for inconsistencies involving people and their lifestyles.

Campaigns open as of June 2023

The following tax scheme and settlement opportunities currently remain open:

• HMRC's Voluntary Tax Disclosure helpline.
• The Let Property Tax Campaign.
• The Disguised Remuneration 2020 settlement opportunity.
• The Contractual Disclosure facility, for admitting fraud, see HMRC: CDF.
• The Worldwide Disclosure Facility (WDF) 
• Taxpayers who cannot use these open campaigns may make a voluntary disclosure using the Digital Disclosure Service (DDS), the disadvantage being that the favourable penalties offered under a published campaign will not apply.

Previous disclosure campaigns which are now closed included:

• Requirement to Correct: this required the disclosure of undeclared liabilities in respect of offshore matters by 31 December 2018 via the WDF or DDS. Severe penalties now apply for failure to correct.
• The Credit Card Campaign (closed January 2020).
• The Second Incomes Campaign for employees with an undeclared second income.
• The Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) in respect of offshore income and assets.
• The National Minimum Wage Campaign for employers or company directors who may not have complied with NMW requirements in the past.