What does voluntary disclosure mean?
Voluntary disclosure is simply the act of letting government services like HMRC know about a mistake or non-compliant activity without being prompted.
Examples include a business that has not declared all of its income or a business that’s trading and has not registered with HMRC for one or more taxes.
Disclosure could be about:
• Income Tax
• Capital Gains Tax
• National Insurance contributions
• Corporation Tax
In the disclosure of a genuine simple mistake, HMRC will calculate what you owe, and you usually have 90 days to pay. If you are disclosing illegal tax return affairs that were designed purposefully to cut your taxes through avoidance schemes, HMRC may decide to escalate matters.
If you know something is wrong, or a mistake has been made it’s better to declare it. The problem arises in the circumstances where it’s obvious that you know of matters that should have been disclosed, or that you actively engaged in activities to avoid your liabilities and HMRC finds out.
If you think you may have a problem, talk to your accountant first who can advise and negotiate with HRMC on your behalf.
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