HMRC sets rules for Worldwide Disclosure Facility on unreported offshore accounts 

The WDF will launch on 5 September 2016 and will be available to anyone who is disclosing a UK tax liability that relates wholly or in part to an offshore issue. This includes:

• income arising from a source outside the UK;
• assets situated or held outside the UK;
• activities carried on wholly or mainly outside the UK; and
• where the funds connected to unpaid tax are transferred outside the UK.

There will be ‘no special terms’ under the new disclosure unlike earlier schemes which offered reduced penalties. This means that the tax interest and penalties will be payable in full. There is also no published end date for the settlement arrangements.

Any disclosures can be submitted via the online Digital Disclosure Service but it will be necessary to advise HMRC in advance of any intention to disclose non-UK taxed income.

Once HMRC has been notified about an intention to make a disclosure, there will be a 90-day limit to collate the information to complete the disclosure, calculate the final liabilities including tax, duty, interest and penalties, and complete the disclosure, using the unique disclosure reference number provided when notifying HMRC.

Plans to launch the WDF were first mooted in the first Budget of 2015, when then Chancellor George Osborne confirmed that disclosure facilities such as the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) and the three British Crown dependencies’ facilities covering the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey would close early. These schemes were available to anyone who owned an asset in the relevant territory at any time between April 1999 and 31 December 2013.

The HMRC guidance states that those who are not eligible to use a disclosure facility to disclose  outstanding tax linked to the use of overseas accounts or other offshore structures should contact HMRC’s Offshore Co-ordination Unit on tel: 03000 530 310, email: ocu.hmrc@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

Source: CCH Daily

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