Are your tax affairs up to date? If not, don’t bury your head in the sand, we are here to help!
HMRC are focusing more and more on ending tax evasion and are encouraging individuals, businesses and trusts to come forward and hold their hands up.
HMRC state that it does not matter why your tax affairs are wrong and that it is better to go to HMRC and admit your failures or inaccuracies rather than wait until they contact you.
Making a voluntary disclosure before you are prompted by HMRC will result in lesser penalties.
Alongside this, full cooperation with HMRC can also help in reducing penalties. If you owe additional taxes and you do not come forward, the penalties could be up to 100% of the unpaid liabilities or up to 200% for offshore related income. In serious cases, HMRC may consider starting a criminal investigation.
The procedure for making a voluntary disclosure is simple and straightforward:
1. You register your intention online using the Digital Disclosure Service (DDS).
2. Once you receive acknowledgment you are given 90 days to complete the disclosure.
3. Calculate the income you need to disclose.
4. Looking at certain behaviours i.e. why you did not declare the income will determine how many years of undeclared income you need to disclose.
5. Work out how much tax you owe.
6. Calculate the penalty and interest amounts.
7. Make an offer to pay your outstanding liabilities.
8. Make a payment.
9. HMRC acceptance.
10. If HMRC do not accept more information may be required.
HMRC are happy to discuss your financial situation with them if you can’t pay.
We understand that the complete process can seem overwhelming and may well put you off coming forward all together. Even just coming in to see us to discuss the need to complete a disclosure is daunting. However once you have taken this step we can, with your cooperation and help in gathering information, essentially take over and deal with HMRC on your behalf. We are here to help in any way we can throughout the whole process.
Using our specialist tax advisors, we will ensure that you do not pay too much tax and we can negotiate the best possible terms whilst minimising any applicable penalty. The result – peace of mind. You and/or your business can focus on moving forward with a weight lifted off your shoulders.
Our team includes an ex Tax Inspector who is always closely involved with all of our voluntary disclosures and his experience from working with HMRC is often invaluable.
If you have undeclared income tax, capital gains tax, national insurance and/or corporation tax please do get in touch. Even if you are unsure if your affairs are up to date or not, we are happy to go through everything with you in order that you can make an informed decision.