‘Tax amnesty’ deadline extended (again)…

Wednesday, December 02, 2009 | Posted by: Paul Roberts
Categories: Business, Protecting your wealth | Tags: tax, HMRC, tax amnesty, NDO, New Disclosure Opportunity, Paul Roberts, UK tax liabilities, offshore funds, protect your wealth, Tax havens

…but only by a matter of five weeks. The deadline to register under the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO) announced by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) this summer has been extended from 30 November 2009 to 4 January 2010. If anyone has been thinking about whether or not to make use of this ‘tax amnesty’, then now is the time to decide, but why has HMRC moved the date?

Since spring this year, HMRC has been pursuing more than 300 financial institutions for their details of UK customers with assets held offshore. HMRC thinks that there are millions, if not billions, of pounds of undisclosed UK tax liabilities hidden away overseas, many in tax havens.

However, some banks have not been as forthcoming as HMRC would have liked when announcing the NDO. In fact, many banks have only written to their customers in the last week of November, with more letters expected to land on doormats during December.  HMRC realised that it could be criticised if the banks’ warning letters to customers arrived after the NDO registration deadline had expired – hence the short extension.

It is also probable that the take-up fell short of HMRC’s expectations and that it has allowed more time for the numbers to increase.

HMRC is expected to pursue those not coming forward after the NDO disclosure deadline has expired. This could result in far higher penalties or prosecutions in the most serious cases and some high-profile court appearances.

Although the registration period has moved, the actual disclosure time limits remain: 31 January 2010 for paper forms and 12 March 2010 for disclosures made online.

Some people may decide to start the new year with a clean-up of their financial past. With tight deadlines and potentially complex issues, we would recommend that professional advice is sought before making any disclosure.

Need further help, read Grant Thornton’s NDO page. 

Paul Roberts and Dave Jennings have been blogging about the New Disclosure Opportunity and the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) since the summer - read their previous posts on the NDO and the LDF.