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Autumn News
Opportunity Knocks
In 2007, the taxman offered an "opportunity to disclose" to people who had undeclared income or gains in offshore accounts. This was prompted by HMRC obtaining lists of people who had offshore accounts with the high street banks, and finding that there were far more of them than declared foreign income on their tax returns. If people came forward then to pay the outstanding tax and interest on it, they were offered only a 10% penalty instead of the potential maximum 100%.Now there will be another opportunity, running from September 2009 to 12 March 2010. The same 10% penalty is offered, but it will be doubled to 20% for anyone who knew about the previous opportunity and failed to come forward. It will be essential to notify HMRC by 30 November 2009 that a disclosure is coming, with the details to follow later. Anyone who fails to take advantage now can expect a higher penalty if they are discovered later by HMRC.
If you have any foreign accounts and are not sure whether you have anything to declare, we can advise you.