Jennifer Adams outlines the process of voluntary disclosure of income that has not previously been declared to HMRC.
Mistakes happen. The HMRC voluntary disclosure process allows individuals or businesses to come forward and correct tax errors, omissions or undeclared income before HMRC has initiated an inquiry, having discovered the error itself. It gives taxpayers the opportunity to pay what they owe, explain how the error occurred, and often receive lower penalties for doing so.
Errors involving income tax, National Insurance contributions, corporation tax or capital gains tax can be reported, including the incorrect claiming of reliefs or deductions that should not have been claimed and failure to register for a relevant tax. However, VAT errors and non-disclosure follow a different process.
Unprompted or prompted?
A disclosure by a taxpayer of an error
