Pegasus Financial Services Limited is part of the Frontier Group. Frontier primarily provides tax advice to clients. Further details can be found on this site in the ‘Group Services’ menu or alternatively at www.frontier-fs.com.

New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO)

On the 1st September 2009, a new campaign was launched by HM Revenue and Customs HMRC to encourage UK resident tax payers to disclose their income and gains from offshore (foreign or overseas) assets.

HMRC have stated that this is the last opportunity for tax payers to disclose and they only have until 12 March 2010, at the very latest.

Who’s affected by the New Disclosure Opportunity?

Over 100,000 UK resident individuals are suspected of having offshore (foreign or overseas) assets or income that has not been subject to tax. This is the final opportunity to disclose unpaid tax or duties.

This is the second (and final) campaign to be run by HMRC. The first, called the Offshore Disclosure Facility (ODF), was in 2007, and focused primarily on offshore account holders of the 5 main high street banks (Barclays, HSBC, HBOS, RBS and Lloyds). The ODF campaign received 45,000 individual disclosures and netted HMRC over £400 million in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest.

HMRC and financial transparency

HMRC now gathers financial information from over 300 financial institutions globally. Typically, this information will include account holders’ name, address, the balances and interest paid, plus a full transaction history for (up to) the last 6 years.

Today’s world has greater transparency, and cross border communication between governments and financial institutions is at an all-time high. Only last year, we saw a Swiss Bank, UBS, being forced by the US to disclose the account details of their US clients and various Governments purchasing the details of the residents who held a Liechtenstein bank account, HMRC is running a separate campaign for these cases, Liechtenstein Disclosure Opportunity (LDO).  The tax nets have been cast wide and are now being drawn in. Attempting to avoid tax by not disclosing is illegal and probably futile.

Penalty is fixed within the NDO at 10% or 20%

De Minimus, within NDO, where unpaid tax and duties are due on small amounts, a penalty will not be due. If the total unpaid liability being disclosed is less than £1000, you need not pay a penalty.

NDO - Failure to Disclose

The stakes are high. Tax payers who do not come forward, and are subsequently found to have unpaid tax liabilities, will face penalties of at least 30%, rising to 100% of the tax evaded. They also run the risk of criminal prosecution.

Important New Disclosure Opportunities dates

We will have to provide HMRC with details of relevant offshore bank accounts and/or assets as of 5th April 2008.

We can help with your New Disclosure Opportunity

We can help, by assisting you throughout the notification and disclosure process to ensure that everything is done in the correct manner, as efficiently and painlessly as possible.

Our specialist team of personal tax advisers are able to ensure that you make the correct notifications and disclosure, and importantly, calculate the correct amount of tax due. Acting as your agent, we handle the whole process and deal directly with HMRC making it as painless as possible.

How to contact us

If you need help or would like to talk to one of our specialist tax advisers more about HMRC New Disclosure Opportunity then please contact Ben Sandars on 01534 280028 or at b.sandars@frontier-fs.com or one of the team on +44 (0) 20 7539 9938 or at ndo@frontier-fs.com.

We have put together a, “Ten Point Action Plan for NDO”, with important actions and dates below. You can also download and print it off with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Ten point NDO plan containing important actions and dates.

  1. Once engaged, after an initial free consultation and terms agreed, you will be required to provide basic personal details.
  2. You will nominate Frontier Fiscal Services Limited as your agent; in order for us handle the Notification and Disclosure on your behalf.
  3. Frontier will prepare the Notification. This will only contain basic personal information, such as name and address and does not contain any details of any accounts or assets.
  4. A Notification of intention to Disclose has to be made before the 4 January 2010.
  5. On receipt of your Notification, HMRC will issue you with a Disclosure Reference Number (DRN).
  6. We will work closely with you to prepare a summary of all tax and or duties, interest and penalties due. The Disclosure period can cover up to 20 years. In certain circumstances, HMRC will accept estimates, providing the summary is as accurate as possible.
  7. Disclosures will normally carry a fixed penalty of 10%. If you received a letter from your bank as part of the Offshore Disclosure Facility (ODF), you may have to pay a 20% penalty. (We can offer specific guidance on this point). No penalties are charged where the tax liability is less than £1,000.
  8. Frontier will draft a Full Disclosure for your review and for confirmation that the details contained within it are correct. 
  9. The Full Disclosure has to be made by 12th March 2010. Payment of all tax, interest and penalties must accompany the completed disclosure.
  10. Disclosure Acceptance - HMRC will check your Disclosure to make sure they are satisfied it is complete. Once they are satisfied, they will send an Acceptance.