HMRC Ends New Disclosure Opportunity
Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The UK's tax authority, HMRC, has brought its 'New Disclosure Opportunity' to a close, and PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that about 13,000 people have taken advantage of the window of opportunity to declare their offshore accounts without facing significant penalties.

Stephen Camm, tax partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said: "In 2007 around 40,000 people registered under the Offshore Disclosure Facility and HMRC raised approximately £400m. We predict that around a third of that number have come forward this time under the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO) and that HMRC is likely to collect around £135m."

The NDO offered individuals with undeclared funds in offshore accounts to make a voluntary disclosure to HMRC and minimise the costs of any unpaid liabilities. Those that did not come forward now face penalties of up to 100%, and the potentially being named and shamed.

Stephen Camm, tax partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, added: "For those that have missed the boat the prospect of a call from HMRC is now a very real as more and more financial institutions open up their records and allow the taxman access to offshore account details."

"Governments in the UK and other territories are increasingly using disclosure opportunities to recover unpaid tax liabilities, and we predict that we will see large numbers of people , who might have come forward under the NDO taking up the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) that is currently underway."

The NDO was launched on 1 September 2009 and was due to close on 30 November 2009. The deadline was extended a further five weeks to allow enough time for individuals to gather their information to assess whether they needed to make a disclosure and for some financial institutions to write to their customers.