CH73140 - Penalties for Failure to Notify: Calculating the penalty: Penalty reductions for quality of disclosure: Determining unprompted or prompted disclosure

Whether a disclosure is unprompted or prompted is an objective test. It is not what the person believed but what the particular facts and circumstances gave him reason to believe, taking into account the person’s circumstances and abilities.

A national campaign highlighting an activity or liability on which we will be concentrating would not stop a disclosure from being unprompted.

However a disclosure would be prompted if a person made the disclosure after

• they became aware that we had obtained information concerning the obligation to notify
• we had contacted them regarding the particular tax or activity to which the obligation to notify relates, or
• during the course of a compliance check concerning one tax liability, it becomes apparent that they have failed to notify us of liability to another tax or duty.

For practical examples of unprompted or prompted disclosure, see CH73160.