What are the benefits of using this facility?

Disclosure under the Worldwide Disclosure Facility is considered voluntary and therefore the penalties are lower than those applied as a result of a HMRC  prompted enquiry, also HMRC tend not to pursue criminal prosecutions where a voluntary disclosure is made.

In addition to this, information exchange under the terms of the CRS will commence on in May 2017 and Tax payers who have not made a disclosure by September 2018, but HMRC are in receipt of overseas information in connection with their tax affairs can expect to be vigorously pursued.

Who can use the facility?

Anyone who wants to disclose a UK tax liability that relates wholly or partly to an offshore issue can use the facility. An offshore issue includes unpaid or omitted tax relating to:

• income arising from a source in a territory outside the UK
• assets situated or held in a territory outside the UK
• activities carried on wholly or mainly in a territory outside the UK
• anything having effect as if it were income, assets or activities of a kind described above