In July HMRC extended the Requirement to correct (RTC) deadline by 90 days where certain circumstances applied; the extended deadline of 29 December 2018 will soon be reached.
The RTC legislation requires those with undeclared offshore tax liabilities (relating to Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax or Inheritance Tax) to disclose them to HMRC and pay the tax accordingly.
Initially, the deadline for this was 30 September 2018 however those who registered to use the Worldwide Disclosure Facility (WDF) by that date were granted a further 90 days to make their full disclosure without fear of penalties.
Since the 29 December 2018 is a Saturday, taxpayers who are using agents to make their disclosure may find that the real deadline will be 28 December or possibly as early as 21 December depending on Christmas working hours.
Where the RTC deadlines are not met taxpayers face harsh penalties for failure to correct of up to 200% of the tax not corrected, with minimum penalties of 100% of the tax, plus interest charges.
HMRC have recently provided further guidance on how to use the WDF for inheritance tax disclosures; see our Requirement to correct: FAQs for more details on this.
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