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Own up over foreign income before October, says HMRC

The UK’s HMRC tax authority has issued a warning that ‘substantially higher’ penalties will be in place from October 1, 2018, for anyone who has failed to pay all tax due on ‘foreign income and assets’ in recent years. 

It advises making a disclosure to HMRC before the cut-off date.

HMRC says most people do declare correctly and pay the tax they owe, but in some cases people may have not been aware of their responsibilities.

If in doubt, it says you should check you have paid appropriate tax, perhaps by taking professional advice.

See also gov.uk/guidance/worldwide-disclosure-facility-make-a-disclosure

This does not relate to self-assessment declarations for the UK tax year 2017-18 (for which the deadline has not yet passed) but to those who have not properly declared in earlier years.

The increased penalties will apply where extra tax becomes payable due to an undeclared ‘offshore matter’, an HMRC spokesman said.

The spokesman said this may include, for example, UK property incomes of a French resident that were transferred to them in France, or French incomes of a UK resident

He said that relevant income for the latter may include money from renting property, gains made on sales of assets (houses, jewellery, art…) as well as income from investments.

For more information see gov.uk/guidance/requirement-to-correct-tax-due-on-offshore-assets

 

Reader's query answered by Hugh MacDonald

The Connexion welcomes queries and regularly publishes a selection with answers. However, please note that we cannot enter into individual correspondence on money topics. Queries may be edited for length and style. Due to the sensitive nature of topics we do not publish full names or addresses on these pages.

Send your financial query to news@connexionfrance.com

The information here is of a general nature. You should not act or refrain from acting on it without taking professional advice on the specific facts of your case. No liability is accepted in respect of these articles. These articles are intended only as a general guide. Nothing herein constitutes actual financial advice

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