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Introduction

Increased penalties are levied where a failure to notify, failure to file a return or an inaccuracy within a return involves an offshore matter or an offshore transfer and the taxpayer’s behaviour is deliberate. The tax arising from the failure must relate to income tax, capital gains tax or (from 1 April 2016) inheritance tax.

Under the rules the maximum penalty can be up to 200% of the tax at stake depending on a number of criteria.

Offshore matters and offshore transfers are becoming increasingly easy for HMRC to track with the introduction of various automatic exchange of information agreements, including the common reporting standard. See IEIM402340 for the list of jurisdictions that report information to HMRC.

For more discussion on the behaviour of the taxpayer, see the Calculating the penalty for inaccuracies in returns ― behaviour of the taxpayer guidance note. For more on whether the disclosure to HMRC is prompted or unprompted, see the Penalty reductions for inaccuracies