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AIA

Final chance to notify under Offshore Disclosure Facility

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22nd Jun 2007
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The Offshore Disclosure Facility is open to any taxpayer who holds or has held, either directly or indirectly, an offshore account that is in any way connected to a loss of UK tax and/or duties. “Offshore”, means anywhere outside the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Therefore offshore accounts include any held in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland.

The terms of this facility:

  • Notify HMRC of the intention to make a disclosure by 22 June 2007.
  • A fixed penalty of 10 per cent of the tax/duties underpaid.
  • No penalty on disclosures of untaxed amounts totalling less than £2,500.
  • Certainty of treatment throughout
  • Disclose with full payment of tax, duties, interest and penalties before 26 November 2007.
  • A final decision from HMRC on whether or not a disclosure has been accepted as soon as possible and by 30 April 2008.

The notification deadline is today: 22 June 2007. Taxpayers must inform HMRC that they intend to make a disclosure, no figures are needed, you supply on only basic details.

No de-minimis
You should notify and make a disclosure even if the amount is small if tax has been unpaid.

Late notifications
Unofficial indications are that late notifications will be accepted in exceptional circumstances, providing the taxpayer notifies as soon as he/she/it became aware of the need to do so.

Useful links

News items
Tax amnesty for offshore income announced
Offshore disclosure countdown: HMRC issues final reminder

Features: By investigations expert Will Heard
Tax amnesty? What amnesty?
Amnesty experiences so far
Barclays blow the gaff - Others to follow but will it be too late for the amnesty?
Tax amnesty? What amnesty?

Features: By David Winch, specialist in SOCA disclosures and Money Laundering Regulations:
The Tax ‘Amnesty’, SOCA and Privilege

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Replies (12)

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David Winch
By David Winch
22nd Jun 2007 19:09

Lunchtime on Friday

Apparently by lunchtime on Friday there had been 55,187 notifications received, of which 6,675 came in this morning.

The Revenue are looking towards 65,000 - 70,000 by midnight.

David

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By User deleted
26th Jun 2007 13:49

Sorry guys,
but I guess you could try and claim reasonable excuse for not hearing in time!

I wrote the article within the Friday deadline, but such is the timing of the Taxwire, that it goes out on a Monday. As the next part in this saga is "What to do if you have not notified in time" this was quite a good way of limbering up for the topic.

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By werty
26th Jun 2007 09:35

A bit late
Likewise, this arrived in my inbox at 18:25 on Monday so did not read it until 08:45 this morning, too late for 22nd!

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By nickja
25th Jun 2007 20:02

final chance
Not much point in posting this on 25 June when the deadline was 22 June!

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By Taxi
22nd Jun 2007 19:24

I bet they will be overwhelmed as midnight approaches!
I saw the "Beware" story - I wonder if it has anything to do with upgrading PAYE so all records are on one computer system?

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David Winch
By David Winch
22nd Jun 2007 19:36

I think there may be an extension!

Nichola

I think there may be an extension for 'hard luck' cases where the phone is busy (phone lines are due to close at 8:00 p.m.) or the website is overloaded.

David

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David Winch
By David Winch
23rd Jun 2007 08:19

Saturday morning

I notice that the HMR&C website is no longer accepting online notifications this morning. However late-comers are urged to telephone 0845 302 1401 (between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. - open at weekends). HMR&C will accept late notifications in some circumstances.

The HMR&C staff on these phonelines have been working very hard as the final deadline loomed last night. This was evident as the phone was answered with a cheery "Good evening, how can I help you?" at 8 this morning!

An online facility for submission of disclosure forms will open on 28 June.

David

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David Winch
By David Winch
23rd Jun 2007 12:24

Notifications and late notifications

I understand from an HMR&C spokesman this morning (Saturday) that approximately 60,000 notifications were received by midnight on 22 June.

HMR&C will accept late notifications pretty much on the same basis as they accept late personal self-assessment tax returns.

Anyone making a notification by phone on 0845 302 1401 today (Saturday 23 June) will have their notification accepted virtually without question. The phone lines close at 8:00 p.m.

From Sunday 24 June onwards late notifications will be accepted where the notifier has a "reasonable excuse" for the delay. Such a reasonable excuse might be, for example, the notifier's illness or a family bereavement. However in such cases the notification must have been made as soon as practicable in all the circumstances.

I would have thought that it would be unlikely that an excuse such as delay on the part of an agent or difficulty in retrieving relevant information would be acceptable because the information needed to file an initial notification is so basic. Similarly anyone who has had difficulty submitting a notification online has the option of making it over the telephone, so that again seems unlikely to be an acceptable excuse after Saturday.

Overall HMR&C were expecting about a quarter of the 400,000 account holders to have 'something to declare'. So they will be expecting to find about 40,000 tax evaders amongst the 340,000 account holders who have not made a notification.

David
www.MLROsupport.co.uk

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David Winch
By David Winch
22nd Jun 2007 12:05

The rumble in the jungle

It is understood that of the 400,000 account holders notified to HMR&C by the banks the Revenue expect to find under-declarations of tax in about 100,000 cases.

On that basis, if they receive about 50,000 voluntary notifications under the scheme they would be looking to smoke out another 50,000 tax evaders from the other 350,000 account holders.

Sounds like fun!

David
www.MLROsupport.co.uk

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By User deleted
22nd Jun 2007 13:09

35k to 40k received
by all accounts.

By the way David, HMRC told me that they ad sent out letters last week to only 200,000 people, so where do we get the extra 200,000 from?

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David Winch
By David Winch
22nd Jun 2007 13:30

HMRC did send 200,000 letters

Nichola

According to a usually well informed source (actually Dave Hartnett on Radio 4) the banks are understood to have sent out 400,000 letters but HMR&C selected 200,000 of the account holders of whom they were more confident they had correct addresses and sent letters only to those.

This apparently does not mean that HMR&C are only intending to follow up those 200,000 to whom they sent letters.

Make of that what you will!

David

P.S. On a related topic it would seem that HMR&C are adept at losing the current addresses of taxpayers anyway! See "Beware".

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By AnonymousUser
22nd Jun 2007 12:05

Anyone out there with any idea ...
... of the shortfall in reports so far? Someone told me that they had received about 30K reports out of an expected 400K, but I have no info on how reliable that is.

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