CH190692 - Publishing details of deliberate tax defaulters: The publication questions: Question 3 - Was this relevant penalty found as a consequence of an investigation: As a consequence of an investigation
We can only publish a person’s details if we can answer ‘yes’ to all five publication questions at CH190620.
We cannot publish a person’s details unless at least some of the information that allows the calculation of the relevant penalty, see CH190644, comes from an investigation, see CH190686. Question 3, see CH190682, asks whether the relevant penalty was found as a consequence of an investigation.
It does not matter whether the person or their agent tells us about the deliberate default or our own research uncovers it, provided that all or some of the facts that allowed the relevant penalty to be found emerged from an investigation. The timing of the person’s disclosure may be important for deciding whether we found the relevant penalty as a consequence of an investigation.
The following situations may arise.
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we accept without checking
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we decide to check because we don’t have enough information to calculate penalties
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we decide to check and find that it is correct and complete
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we decide to check and find that it is incorrect and/or incomplete
Person makes a disclosure after we start an investigation
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we accept without checking
If a person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, including all information required in calculating any penalty, and we accept it without checking it, we will not be able to publish information relating to the penalties for those defaults. This is because the penalties the person has to pay are not found as a result of an investigation by HMRC.
Note that asking the person direct questions to confirm or clarify information that they have provided will not constitute an investigation.
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we decide to check because we don’t have enough information to calculate penalties
If the information that the person gives in the disclosure is not sufficient for us to calculate any penalties that have been incurred, we will need to seek more information. We will start an investigation.
Any penalties that arise will be found as a result of that investigation, even if we also rely on information that the person disclosed before the investigation started. So, we may be able to publish details if the answer to all the other publication questions is ‘yes’.
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we decide to check and find that it is correct and complete
When a person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, we may decide to check whether it is correct and complete. We will begin an investigation. If we accept at the end of it that the disclosure was correct and complete we will not be able to publish details of the penalties. This is because the penalties the person has to pay were not found as a result of an investigation - the fact that we conducted an investigation had no effect on the conclusion that a penalty is chargeable or the amount of the penalty incurred.
Person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, which we decide to check and find that it is incorrect and/or incomplete
If a person makes an unprompted disclosure of deliberate defaults, but we discover after starting an investigation that some of the disclosure is wrong, or incomplete, any penalties relating to the wrongly disclosed defaults or the defaults that were not disclosed will have arisen as a consequence of an investigation. Therefore we may be able to publish details if the answer to all the other publications questions is ‘yes’.
Any relevant penalties that relate to correctly and fully disclosed defaults will not have arisen as a consequence of an investigation and therefore we cannot publish details relating to those relevant penalties.
Person makes a disclosure after we start an investigation
Where a person makes a disclosure after we have started an investigation, any relevant penalty is found as a consequence of the investigation.