HMRC has been targeting taxpayers with assets overseas as a priority for some time. Back in 2013 a policy document titled ‘No safe havens’ was first published. This document set out a vision for the future where taxpayers with offshore tax issues come forward voluntarily to pay their tax and those who do not would be ‘detected and face vigorously enforced sanctions’. 

This vision is has become a reality for many. Therefore, UK residents with offshore assets, such as bank or investment accounts or holiday homes that have been rented, as well as those overseas with a liability to UK tax, should be alert to what’s coming as both innocent and deliberate errors could now attract a penalty up to 200 per cent of the tax due.