CH190620 - Publishing details of deliberate tax defaulters: The publication questions: Overview

To decide whether the law allows us to publish the person’s name and other details, we must consider five questions. In this guidance we call these the publication questions.

You must examine the facts of the case to give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to each question. We can publish the person’s details only where we can answer ‘yes’ to all five questions.

Work through the publication questions in the order below. This should save time because if the answer to any of the publication questions is ‘no’, we cannot publish the person’s details and therefore do not need to consider the later questions.

Consider the first four questions for each penalty.

The publication questions

1. Is this a relevant penalty?

A relevant penalty is a penalty for a deliberate, or deliberate and concealed

  • inaccuracy in a return or other document,
  • failure to comply with certain obligations to do something, or
  • VAT or Excise Duty wrongdoing.

See CH190640.

2. Does this relevant penalty relate to a PDDD period?

The relevant penalty relates to a PDDD period if the penalty is for

  • an inaccuracy in a return or other document for a tax period beginning on or after 1 April 2010, or
  • a failure or wrongdoing that occurred on or after 1 April 2010.

See CH190660.

3. Was this relevant penalty found as a consequence of an investigation?

In this guidance an investigation includes any check by an officer of HMRC into a person’s tax affairs.

See CH190680.

4. Is this relevant penalty a qualifying relevant penalty?

In this guidance we use the term ‘qualifying relevant penalties’ to mean relevant penalties on which the maximum reduction has not been given for the quality of disclosure.

See CH190700.

For all the penalties from the same investigation where the answer to the four questions above is ‘yes’, we add together the potential lost revenue (PLR).

We then go on to consider question 5 in relation to those qualifying relevant penalties.

5. Does the qualifying potential lost revenue (PLR) exceed £25,000?

In this guidance, we use the term ‘qualifying PLR’ to mean the total PLR relating to qualifying relevant penalties.

See CH190720.

FA09/S94

SI 2010/574