Tell HMRC about your credit or debit card or cash payment transactions
Report all of your credit, debit card or cash sales income to HMRC using the Card Transaction Programme.
About the disclosure programme
Overview
HMRC believes the majority of customers want to pay the right amount of tax. HMRC also knows there are customers who do not pay the right amount of tax and wants to help them put that right.
The Card Transaction Programme allows businesses that accept card and cash payments and have not reflected all transactions in a return, to bring their affairs up to date and take advantage of the best possible terms.
Examples could include a business:
- accepting payments by card that might not have declared all of their income
- accepting payments by alternative methods, including cash, online or telephone
- that is trading and has not registered with HMRC and accept cards and cash as payment methods
HMRC uses its legal powers to obtain details of debit and credit card transactions from the companies that process those transactions.
HMRC is using this and other data it holds to identify those businesses who have failed to declare all or part of this income. It may provide HMRC with a view on the level of income we would expect businesses to declare from card and cash transactions.
If you owe tax on your income you must tell HMRC about any unpaid tax now. You’ll then have 90 days to calculate and pay what you owe. This guide explains how you can do that.
You do not need a letter from HMRC to take part. You can still take part as long as your circumstances are covered by the bullets above.
Disclosures outside of the programme
You can still make a disclosure and put your tax affairs in order, even if you’re not within the scope of the Card Transaction Programme. You may be eligible under another campaign.
To find out whether you fall within any other campaign you need to check HMRC campaigns.
If your disclosure cannot be made under a current open campaign, the terms offered here will not be available.
However, if you make a full and voluntary disclosure of all unpaid liabilities in these circumstances, you can usually expect a lower penalty than HMRC would otherwise seek if they had raised an enquiry or compliance check without the disclosure.
For all other disclosures use the disclosure service. If you need any further help you can phone the voluntary disclosure helpline on 0300 123 1078. This helpline is for when you do not fall within the scope of an ongoing campaign but wish to make a voluntary disclosure.
Received a letter from HMRC
HMRC receives data about card transactions from the companies that process those transactions. The data we hold suggests you need to check that you’ve correctly declared all of the income you’ve received. This includes income from:
- face to face sales - by card and cash
- online sales
- telephone sales
Find out what to do
HMRC needs you to check that your tax returns reported all of the income your business received. This includes:
- Self Assessment (company and or individual)
- VAT returns
If you’ve been issued with returns but have:
- entered less income than you received
- not included your income at all
If you’ve not been issued with returns because you have not registered for the relevant tax, then you should read the next section about taking part.
If you’ve checked your tax returns and you’re sure you’ve included all of the income your business received, contact the campaign helpline.
The team can confirm that you do not need to take part in the scheme. Failure to do this may lead to further correspondence being issued to you.
Taking part
To take part in the Card Transaction Programme you should:
- tell HMRC you want to take part in the Card Transaction Programme (notify)
- tell HMRC about all income, gains, tax and duties you have not previously told them about (disclose)
- make a formal offer
- pay what you owe
- help HMRC as much as you can if they ask you for more information
To benefit from the reduced penalties offered, HMRC will take account of the level to which you’ve helped them and the accuracy of the information you provided.
As well as making the disclosure detailed above, you may need to complete or amend tax returns which have already been issued to you. This will depend on when the returns were issued and whether the deadline for amending them has passed.
If you have not registered for the relevant taxes then you should do this as soon as possible.
For further information on Self-Assessment see preparing your disclosure. For help with VAT, see VAT issues.
The advantages of taking part
Whether the errors were due to misunderstanding the rules or deliberately avoiding paying the right amount of tax, it’s better to tell HMRC and admit any failures and or inaccuracies rather than wait until we uncover those errors.
The Card Transaction Programme offers the best possible terms available to get your tax affairs in order. You can take advantage of these by telling HMRC you wish to participate and make a full disclosure and payment.
When you make your disclosure you must tell HMRC how much penalty you believe you should pay. What you pay will depend on why you’ve failed to disclose your income. If you’ve deliberately kept information from HMRC, you’ll pay a higher penalty than if you have simply made a mistake.
You may not have to pay any penalty at all. If you do, it’s likely to be a lower penalty than it would be if HMRC discovers you have not paid enough tax.
If you’ve failed to register for a Self Assessment tax return you’ll have to pay HMRC what you owe, up to a maximum of 20 years.
If you’ve completed your Income Tax Self Assessment or Corporation Tax Self Assessment tax returns within the appropriate time limits, but made a mistake when declaring your income, the number of years you’ll need to pay for will depend on the reasons you’re behind with your tax affairs.
This can be up to either 4 years, 6 years or 20 years.
If you do not come forward and HMRC finds later that you’re behind with your tax, it may be harder to convince HMRC that it was not deliberate. The law allows HMRC to go back up to 20 years and in serious cases HMRC may carry out a criminal investigation.
Register your business for tax
If you have not registered your business for the relevant taxes, you should use the HMRC sign in service.
It’s particularly relevant if you have income to disclose for the current tax year or the year before, that as these years do not normally form part of the disclosure process.
More information on what to do for each year is shown at the sub heading ‘Income to include in your disclosure’ within Preparing your disclosure.
If you choose not to tell HMRC about undisclosed income
HMRC is targeting tax evasion through debit, credit card and cash sales. HMRC will use the information it holds on digital intelligence systems to identify taxpayers who might not have declared all their income.
HMRC will be carrying out checks and enquiries to resolve the unpaid tax. The customers involved will not be able to make use of the opportunity offered as part of this campaign.
Where additional taxes are due, HMRC will usually charge higher penalties than those available under the Card Transaction Programme. 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, in line with their criminal investigation policy.
How to make a notification and disclosure to HMRC
Notify
You must tell HMRC that you intend to make a disclosure. You should do this as soon as you become aware that you owe tax on your undeclared income.
At this stage, you only need to tell HMRC that you’ll be making a disclosure.
You do not need to provide any details of the undisclosed income or the tax you believe you owe.
You can tell HMRC about a disclosure relating to:
- your own tax or partnership affairs (each partner will need to make their own disclosure)
- your company’s tax affairs (if you’re a director or company secretary)
- someone else on their behalf (for example if you’re a tax adviser or personal representative)
You cannot include details for more than one person or company on a disclosure. For example, if a husband and wife both have undisclosed income, they must complete separate disclosures.
Each disclosure should outline the share of the income they wish to disclose. In a similar way, if a disclosure is required for a company and for a director this should be shown on 2 separate disclosures.
If you’ve notified HMRC and you find out you no longer need to make a disclosure, you must tell HMRC. If you do not, HMRC will take follow up action to secure a disclosure from you.
Individuals and companies
Individuals and companies can notify HMRC by using the Digital Disclosure Service (DDS). HMRC will write to tell you your unique Disclosure Reference Number (DRN).
You should use this whenever you contact HMRC about the Card Transaction Programme. You’ll also be given a Payment Reference Number (PRN) to use when paying what you owe.
Agents
If you’re an agent use the Agent DDS to notify HMRC of your client’s disclosure. We’ll then send you a DRN and a PRN.
Make a disclosure for someone who’s died
If you want to make a disclosure for someone who’s died and you’re the personal representative or executor of the deceased, or their interests, you can do this using the DDS.
Make sure it’s clear that you’re notifying on someone else’s behalf. We may ask for additional evidence that you’re authorised to act for them.
Disclose
You can do this as soon as you have your DRN, but you must disclose within 90 days of the date you receive your notification acknowledgement.
You can make a disclosure:
- about yourself or your partnership (each partner will need to make their own disclosure)
- about your own tax affairs or your company’s tax affairs (if you’re a director or company secretary)
- on behalf of someone else (for example if you’re a tax adviser)
When you send your disclosure you must pay what you owe.
Make sure that HMRC receives your disclosure and payment by the date stated on your notification acknowledgement. If you cannot pay what you owe by the deadline given, you must have made payment arrangements with HMRC by that date.
Preparing your disclosure
Calculate what you owe
Depending on your circumstances, this could be simple or complicated and you may want to seek independent professional advice.
Although you have 90 days from the date you receive your notification acknowledgement to make your disclosure, you should start gathering together your information and records as early as possible.
HMRC cannot provide advice on calculating how much you should pay.
You’ll need to work out the total income for each year you’ve previously failed to tell HMRC about.
You do not need to include any income in your disclosure that you’ve already declared. This is because tax should already have been paid on this income.
You’ll then need to deduct the allowable expenses from your total income to work out your taxable profit (income). Not all of the expenses you incur will be allowable as a deduction.
You should not include any expenses in your disclosure that you’ve previously included in a tax return or earlier correction.
Once you’ve calculated the income you need to disclose, you’ll need to work out how much tax you owe on that income. The rates of Income Tax you’ll pay depend on how much income you earn above your Personal Allowance, which is an annual amount of tax-free income.
If you’ve already received PAYE income and told HMRC about some other income and are now disclosing additional income for any year, you’ll need to make sure that you take this into account when calculating.
You may be able to use the calculator to work out interest and penalties that are due for the previous 19 years. You’ll need to calculate the tax liability due for each year manually, prior to using this tool.
If you or your partner are receiving (or have recently made a claim for) tax credits you should still make a disclosure, but tick the appropriate box on your disclosure form. The information will be passed to the tax credit office to consider.
You’ll be notified separately of any changes that may be required to the amount of tax credits you receive for the relevant years. If you’ve made a joint claim for tax credits you may need to tell your partner that the award could be adjusted as a result of your disclosure.
Companies will need to determine the amount of Corporation Tax to disclose on the understated profit arising from this undeclared income. These companies include:
- clubs
- societies
- associations
- other unincorporated bodies or organisations
The rate of Corporation Tax payable will depend on circumstances. You’ll have to consider notifying Companies House if you’ve submitted accounts that require amendment.
Incomplete business records
If your records are incomplete you should make your best estimate of the undisclosed income and gains and use this to make your disclosure.
HMRC may ask you to explain how you’ve worked out any estimates, so you’ll need to keep your calculations.
If you have bank statements for the period of your disclosure, they’ll probably help. If you do not have them, HMRC recommends you contact your bank as soon as possible to get copies.
If you take debit or credit card payments, your provider should be able to let you have any transaction information.
If you cannot get copy statements at all, you should work out your income by using the most recent statements as a guide to your income and expenditure. HMRC may ask you to explain why you could not get copy statements.
If you have not kept proper business records you should begin to do so immediately. This is an opportunity to put things right from now on.
If HMRC later discovers that you’ve failed to keep sufficient business records, they can charge a penalty rising to £3,000.
Income to disclose
You should include all of the income you’ve previously not told HMRC about in your disclosure, unless you’re including the additional income in a tax return or as an amendment to a tax return.
The section below tells you what action you need to take for each year, depending on the type of business and income you have.
Income earned in the current tax year or the year before
Any income you’ve had in the current tax year should not be included in your disclosure.
If you’re not registered for Self Assessment, you’ll need to register now for either Income Tax if you’re an individual or Corporation Tax if you’re a company.
HMRC will send you a tax return or a notice to file a tax return shortly after the end of the current tax year. You should report this income on that tax return by the deadline. There are different deadlines for individuals and companies.
You should include the previous year’s income on a tax return rather than in your disclosure. If you’ve already sent the previous year’s tax return to HMRC you can make an amendment within 12 months of the statutory filing date.
Individual tax returns
Income Tax returns usually need to be submitted following the end of the tax year by:
- 31 October for paper returns
- 31 January for online returns
So it’s likely for the current year and the year before, that you’ll still have time to submit or amend a tax return to include this income.
You can make a disclosure for all tax years up to and including 2016 to 2017. If HMRC has sent you a return for any year from 2014 to 2015 or later and it’s still outstanding, you must complete the return and do not include those years in your disclosure.
Partnership Tax returns
Partnership Tax returns usually need to be submitted following the end of the tax year by:
- 31 October for paper returns
- 31 January for online returns
So it’s likely for the current and the year before, that you’ll still have time to submit or amend a tax return to include this income.
For years up to and including 2016 to 2017, you do not need to amend or submit a tax return (unless HMRC has sent you a return for any year from 2014 to 2015 or after, that’s still outstanding) in the name of the partnership.
Instead, each partner with additional income to declare should complete and submit their own disclosure.
Company Tax returns
A company’s tax returns should be submitted within 12 months from the accounting period end date.
If your Company Tax returns are outstanding, you should file all the outstanding tax returns that are within 4 years from the end of the accounting period. Include income for earlier years in your disclosure.
How many years to disclose
This depends on why things went wrong.
If you’re taking part in the Card Transaction Programme you’ll know why you have not previously told HMRC about your income or paid the right amount of tax.
You’ll need to understand when you should have told HMRC that you were receiving this income, as this will have a bearing on the number of years that you’ll need to disclose.
HMRC also asks you to decide whether:
- you made an error despite taking reasonable care
- whether you were careless
- whether it was something you did deliberately
How much you pay will depend on the answers to those questions.
Failed to tell HMRC you’ve started a business
If you’re an individual and have started receiving income (including individuals within a partnership), the latest date you should tell HMRC is 5 October after the end of the tax year for which you start to receive that income.
For example, if you have tax to pay on income in the tax year ended 5 April 2018, you need to let HMRC know by 5 October 2018.
HMRC send newly formed limited companies a form CT41G (Corporation Tax - information for new companies) within a few days of the company being registered at Companies House. This form is usually sent to your company’s registered office.
Even if you do not receive form CT41G, you must still tell HMRC within 3 months of your company becoming active (by starting business activity or starting to trade).
The best way to do this is to register on the HMRC Online Service.
If you’ve failed to register for Self Assessment by the appropriate deadline you’ll have to pay HMRC the tax you owe, going back up to 20 years.
If you’ve taken reasonable care
If you’ve registered for Self Assessment by the appropriate deadline and have taken care to make sure your tax affairs were correct, then you discover you’ve paid too little, you’ll only have to pay HMRC what you owe for a maximum of 4 years.
This means you’ll:
- need ensure your tax affairs for the current and later tax years are accurately reported on tax returns by the appropriate deadlines
- need ensure your tax affairs for the year prior to the current tax year are reported on a tax return by the appropriate deadline
- have to complete the disclosure form and pay HMRC what you owe for the 3 years prior to this
If you did not take reasonable care
If you’ve registered for Self Assessment by the appropriate deadline but you‘ve paid too little because you were careless, you’ll have to pay HMRC what you owe for a maximum of 6 years. This means you’ll:
- need ensure your tax affairs for the current and later tax years are accurately reported on tax returns by the appropriate deadlines
- need ensure your tax affairs for the year prior to the current tax year are reported on a tax return by the appropriate deadline
- have to complete the disclosure form and pay HMRC what you owe for the 5 years prior to this
Deliberate mistakes
If you’ve deliberately paid too little tax you’ll have to pay HMRC what you owe for a maximum of 20 years.
Other income liabilities to include
You must include all income and gains in your disclosure where you’ve paid too little tax. This could include:
- investment income not taxed before you receive it, for example, bank interest
- taxed income where additional tax is payable
- income from property or land rental (less the expenses relating to that income)
If your only undeclared income is from residential letting you should use the Let Property Campaign to disclose this.
Loans to directors - Corporation Tax Act 2010, section 455
If you’re a company director and take money out of your company that’s not a salary or a dividend (over and above any money you’ve put in) you’re classed as having received the benefit of a director’s loan. If this applies, the company may have more tax to pay.
When you pay off a director’s loan (on which your company has paid Corporation Tax) your company may be able to reclaim that amount of Corporation Tax paid, you should contact the campaign helpline.
If you’re disclosing on behalf of a company that is entitled to claim relief under section 458 CTA 2010, you should contact HMRC immediately for an appropriate offer letter.
Capital Gains income
You must disclose all Capital Gains you have not previously declared. For example, Capital Gains made on the disposal of investments such as:
- land
- property
- shares
- stocks
- bonds
A company will include its chargeable gains on its Company Tax Return.
Employer income
If you’ve employed anyone, you may have to pay some Income Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) (PAYE) in respect of what you paid to your employees. You’ll need to include this on your disclosure form.
Disclosing other potential liabilities
You ca not provide details of the following liabilities on your disclosure form:
- VAT issues
- Class 2 NICs
- trusts, Inheritance Tax and tax during administration periods
- tax credits
If any of the above apply, tick the relevant box in the other potential liability section of the form and follow the guidance contained within the disclosure form and below. The campaigns team will liaise with the relevant department to confirm you’ve successfully resolved any issues regarding these liabilities.
VAT issues
If you want to make a disclosure of a VAT matter because:
- you’ve exceeded the VAT threshold, you can use HMRC’s online services or make a postal application to register
- you’ve made an error on a VAT Return, you may be able to make an adjustment
- you do not meet the conditions for making adjustments on the return - you can apply in writing using form VAT652 Notification of errors in VAT returns.
You can include the details in a letter instead and send to:
HM Revenue and Customs
VAT Error Correction Team
13th Floor North
Euston Towers
286 Euston Road
London
NW1 3UH
Class 2 NICs
If you’re self-employed but have not yet registered to pay Class 2 NICs you should to do so immediately to avoid losing out on future benefits.
Trusts, Inheritance Tax and tax during administration periods
If you wish to make a disclosure of Inheritance Tax, Trust or Administration Period liabilities please write to:
HM Revenue and Customs
Trusts and Estates Risk Team
Ferrers House
PO Box 38
Castle Meadow Road
Nottingham
NG2 1BB
Tax credits
If you or your partner are receiving tax credits or have recently made a claim for tax credits, you should still make a disclosure but also tick the appropriate box on the disclosure form.
The information will be passed to HMRC to consider. You’ll be notified separately of any changes that may be required to the amount of tax credits you receive or have received for the relevant year(s).
If you believe you may have liabilities for any other taxes or duties not mentioned above please contact HMRC.
Interest
HMRC charges interest from the date tax is due until the date it is actually paid. Interest is calculated on a daily basis.
Any additional tax that’s included in your disclosure will be late and so will attract an interest charge. If you fail to include the correct interest your disclosure will be rejected as it will be incomplete.
To assist individuals there is an interest and penalty calculator available to help you establish the correct amount of interest due. It should only be used if your tax affairs are straight forward and you’re entitled to only basic personal allowances.
Companies can read HMRC interest rates to establish the amount of interest payable.
Penalties
HMRC charges penalties on any additional tax you owe if you:
- sent HMRC an incorrect tax return
- did not tell HMRC that you’re liable to tax
In specific circumstances it may not be appropriate to allow you the full reductions for disclosure. For example, if you’ve taken a significant period to correct your non-compliance, you cannot expect HMRC to agree a full reduction for disclosure.
In such cases it’s unlikely that HMRC will reduce your penalty by more than 10 percentage points above the minimum of the statutory range.
For this purpose HMRC would normally consider a ‘significant period’ to be over 3 years or less, where the overall disclosure covers a longer period.
The factsheets on penalties for inaccuracies in returns and penalties for failure to notify have more information on the statutory range for penalties to be reduced. If you think you might not be entitled to the full reduction, you should read these factsheets which provide more detail.
HMRC does not charge interest on these penalties unless they’re paid late.
The penalty is a percentage of the additional amount you owe. HMRC can charge penalties of up to:
- 100% of the tax liability if the income or gain arose in the UK
- 200% for an offshore liability
If you’ve offshore income or gains to disclose you should make your disclosure and select the offshore option where appropriate in the form.
Although the rate of the penalties will vary depending on your circumstances, they’ll usually be lower if you make a voluntary disclosure.
If you’ve taken reasonable care with your tax affairs, but you have not declared the right amount of tax you owe, you will not pay any penalties at all. We do not expect many people’s circumstances to fall within this category.
If you have not paid enough tax even though you’ve taken reasonable care with your affairs or there’s anything else you think HMRC should consider concerning the penalties you have to pay, please phone the campaign helpline before making your disclosure.
If HMRC thinks that you have not included the right penalty in your disclosure, we may reject it.
Individuals can use the HMRC calculator to help calculate the interest and penalties due on the income you’re including in your disclosure.
If you’re making a multiple year disclosure, you should include all years in a single calculation and refrain from calculating each year on a separate, individual basis.
This calculator is to help you calculate the interest and penalties due on the income you’re including in your disclosure.
This calculator is for interest and penalty calculations only and will not help you calculate the Income Tax due.
Companies can read Corporation Tax rates and HMRC interest rates to establish the amount of tax and interest payable.
Suggested steps to calculate the amount to be included in the disclosure are:
- Calculate the additional Corporation Tax liability.
- Read the interest table.
- Apply the correct interest to liability calculated in step 1
- Apply the appropriate penalty to liability calculated in step 1.
When HMRC checks your disclosure they’ll consider whether the penalty you’ve applied is reasonable. There’s a space on the disclosure form where you can provide an explanation to assist them in reaching their decision.
HMRC may need to contact you to ascertain the reasonableness of the penalty if no explanation is provided.
If HMRC thinks the penalty applied is too low they may need to carry out a further check of your tax affairs. For example, HMRC may find it difficult to accept, without further enquiry, that someone in business for many years, earning significant amounts without telling HMRC, has not done this deliberately.
The declaration
This is a very important part of your disclosure. You should only complete the declaration once you’re certain that:
- the disclosure is correct and complete
- you understand why you’ve been asked to include penalties in your disclosure
The offer
A condition of using the Card Transaction Programme is that you make an offer to pay the full amount you owe. The offer, together with HMRC’s acceptance letter to you’ll create a legally binding contract between you and HMRC. There’s a letter of offer included in the disclosure forms which you should complete.
If you’re disclosing on behalf of a company that is entitled to claim relief under section 458 CTA 2010, contact HMRC for an appropriate offer letter.
Pay HMRC
When to pay
When you pay, you’ll need a PRN. You’ll get the PRN when you notify HMRC that you intend to make a disclosure.
Unless you’ve contacted HMRC to agree additional time to pay, you should send your payment at the same time as you send your disclosure. HMRC should receive it no later than the 90 day deadline given on your notification acknowledgement letter.
If you do not pay your outstanding liabilities, we’ll take steps to recover the money.
Payment methods
Whichever way you choose to pay, please make sure that you quote your PRN.
If you cannot pay the full amount
HMRC expects you to pay what you owe when you make your disclosure.
If you cannot pay the full amount, you’ll need to let HMRC know as soon as possible and before you send in your disclosure. To do this, you should contact HMRC.
When you phone, HMRC will want to talk to you about your current financial position so they can tell you what they think you should pay and when.
To help HMRC decide, you’ll need to tell them:
- your DRN
- how and when you intend to pay HMRC what you owe
- details of your income and outgoings
- what you own, including your home, other property, land, vehicles, investments and money in the bank
- what you already owe, including mortgages, loans, credit cards
If you cannot pay the full amount do not submit your disclosure or payment until you’ve spoken to HMRC.
After HMRC receives your disclosure
Accepting your disclosure
HMRC anticipates that the vast majority of disclosures will be accepted. If HMRC is satisfied that you’ve made a full disclosure, they’ll accept it as quickly as possible.
Acknowledgement
When they receive your disclosure, HMRC will send you an acknowledgment as soon as possible. HMRC will then consider the disclosure under the terms of the Card Transaction Programme.
If you have not received an acknowledgement within 2 weeks of sending your disclosure, please contact HMRC.
HMRC expects most disclosures to be self-explanatory but they may need to contact you or your tax adviser for clarification. You may also be asked to provide evidence of your circumstances to satisfy HMRC that your disclosure is complete.
Your full co-operation is one of the conditions of using this opportunity and failure to co-operate may affect the acceptance of your offer.
Considering your disclosure
HMRC will review all disclosures. If HMRC decides to accept your disclosure they’ll send you a letter accepting your offer. If HMRC cannot accept the disclosure they’ll contact you.
If HMRC finds that a disclosure is materially incorrect they’ll seek significantly higher penalties.
In exceptional circumstances an incomplete disclosure may be considered under HMRC Criminal Investigation Policy. In such cases the material in the disclosure could be used as evidence.
Disclosures unlikely to be accepted
Disclosures that are found to be materially incorrect or incomplete when checked by HMRC are unlikely to be accepted under the Card Transaction Programme.
Disclosures from customers where HMRC has opened an enquiry or compliance check before the customer has notified their intention to submit a disclosure are unlikely to be accepted. Those who want to disclose liabilities under these circumstances should tell the person conducting the enquiry.
A full and early disclosure will influence the amount of penalty HMRC seeks in the ongoing enquiry or investigation.
Disclosures where HMRC believes the money that is the subject of the disclosure is the proceeds of serious organised crime are not likely to be accepted. Examples can include:
- VAT fraud
- VAT bogus registration fraud
- organised tax credit fraud
- instances where there is wider criminality (such as an ongoing police investigation)
HMRC will not accept disclosures if a person’s inaccuracy or failure was a result of a deliberate and concealed action.
An important factor for HMRC in deciding if they will carry out civil or criminal investigations into cases of fiscal fraud is whether the taxpayer(s) has made a complete and unprompted disclosure of any amounts evaded or improperly reclaimed.
While HMRC would consider each case on its merits, a complete and unprompted disclosure would generally suggest that a civil (rather than criminal) investigation was appropriate.
If you were eligible for a past HMRC disclosure opportunity and you did not disclose at the time, HMRC may find it hard to accept anything you disclose through the Card Transaction Programme was not deliberate.
HMRC would expect you to calculate your penalty and the number of years you should pay to reflect deliberate action. If you do not, HMRC may not accept your disclosure.
You’ll be in this category if you have not yet come forward and would have been covered by a previous campaign.
If you disclose serious tax problems
HMRC cannot offer immunity from prosecution. An important factor when they’re deciding whether to carry out criminal investigations into cases of tax fraud is whether you’ve made a complete and unprompted disclosure of any amounts evaded or improperly reclaimed.
If you leave something important out of your disclosure
If you realise you’ve missed something out, you should immediately contact HMRC to make an amendment. You can contact us using various methods.
If HMRC receives information indicating that your disclosure was incorrect, they have the right to look at your tax affairs again.
HMRC may write to you about the information they have received and if necessary, will send you assessments to collect any extra tax due.
These penalties are likely to be higher than those offered by the Card Transaction Programme.
Information received after your disclosure
HMRC will continue to seek new information. They will use it to identify customers where a disclosure should have been made or where the disclosure made is not what was expected based on the information HMRC holds.
Publication of those penalised
In certain circumstances HMRC is able to publish the details of those penalised for deliberately failing in particular tax obligations.
If you come forward as part of this campaign you’ll earn the maximum reduction of any relevant penalties for the quality of disclosure, and HMRC will not publish your details if:
- notify HMRC that you’re going to make a disclosure
- make a full disclosure including full payment of tax owed which is accurate and complete before the deadline you’re given
- co-operate fully with HMRC if they ask you for any further information
HMRC may include you in a list of deliberate defaulters if you do not follow these steps.
Company officers and penalties
Company employees may be liable to pay part, or all, of a company’s penalty. This could apply for a:
- deliberate inaccuracy
- failure to notify
- wrongdoing
Only where the inaccuracy, failure or wrongdoing was attributable to the employee and they gained or attempted to gain personally from the offence, or the company is, or is likely, to become insolvent.
Get things right for the future
Once you’ve submitted your disclosure, HMRC expects you to keep your tax affairs in order in the future.
This means you should continue to accurately declare income for every year after the latest year included in your disclosure. You should ensure any tax returns issued to you are returned with accurate information by the appropriate deadlines.
Help and advice
If you’ve any questions not covered by this guide contact us.
Your rights and obligations
HMRC’s customer charter explains what you can expect from HMRC and what HMRC expects from you.
If you think we could do better
Contact HMRC’s Card Transaction Programme if you’re unhappy with our service.
Privacy and confidentiality
The full protection of the Human Rights Act will continue to apply to you, and HMRC has a strict policy regarding the privacy and confidentiality of customers’ personal information.
Read the Personal Information Charter for more information on HMRC’s privacy policy.
For more information see HMRC’s Data Protection - Information Charter.
Last updated 23 April 2018 + show all updates
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The guidance has been updated with new links to the digital disclosure service.
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This guidance has been updated with a new section regarding making a disclosure for someone who has died.
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The guidance has been updated on which tax years you can make a disclosure for.
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The section 'When to pay' has been updated about the need for a Payment Reference Number when making payment.
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The Card Transaction Programme now also allows cash payments to be declared.
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The guidance has been updated on which tax years you can make a disclosure for. If you have tax to pay on income, you need to let HMRC know by 5 October 2017.
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First published.