Guidance

Information notices — penalties for facilitating avoidance schemes involving non-resident promoters

Published 30 September 2022

This factsheet tells you about the information notices we may give when we’re checking if you may have to pay a penalty for facilitating an avoidance scheme involving a non-resident promoter.

To find out more about penalties for facilitating avoidance schemes involving non-resident promoters, read factsheet CC/FS67, ‘Penalties for facilitating avoidance schemes involving non-resident promoters’.

What an information notice is

An information notice is a document we may give to a person when we’re checking:

• their own or another person’s tax position
• if they or another person may have to pay a penalty for facilitating an avoidance scheme involving a non-resident promoter

Once we give an information notice to a person, they are legally required to give us the information, documents or both, that the notice asks for. If they do not do this, we may then charge them penalties.

When we give an information notice

We may need to check if you have to pay a penalty for facilitating an avoidance scheme involving a non‑resident promoter. If we do, we’ll normally ask you to help by giving us the information and documents that we need. If you do not do this, we may give you an information notice. Sometimes we may need to give an information notice without asking for the information or documents first.

In some circumstances, we may ask the independent tribunal that deals with tax to approve the issue of an information notice. We’ll tell you if the notice we give you has been approved by the tribunal.

What the information notice will tell you

The information notice will tell you:

• what documents or information (or both) you need to give us
• how and when to give us the information and/or documents
• what happens if you do not comply with the notice
• about any appeal rights if you disagree with the notice

What we can ask for in an information notice

We can ask for any information or documents (or both) to help us with our check if it is ‘reasonably required’. This means that we believe we need it for our check and it’s reasonable to ask for it.

What we cannot ask for in an information notice

We cannot use an information notice to ask you for information or documents that:

• you do not have, and you cannot get (or cannot get copies of) from whoever has them
• relate to the tax position of a person who died more than 4 years before we issue the notice
• have been created as part of the preparation for a tax appeal
• are about a person’s physical, mental, spiritual or personal welfare, and not about anything else
• are privileged communications between lawyers and clients for the purpose of getting or giving legal advice

The rules about what information and documents fall into these categories can be complicated. If you think that anything we’ve asked for may fall into one or more of them, please talk to the officer who sent you the notice. You can find more information about privileged communications in the section ‘Legal professional privilege’ below.

What to do if you disagree with an information notice

If we send you an information notice, it will tell you what you can appeal against, and how to appeal.

You may be able to appeal against:

• the notice itself
• anything we’ve asked for in the notice, except for in some cases where we’ve asked for statutory records (see below)

If you want to appeal, you need to write to the officer who sent you the information notice within 30 days of the date the notice was given. You need to tell them what you’re appealing against and why. They will carefully consider what you say and try to reach agreement with you. If you cannot reach agreement, you can ask for:

• a review by an independent HM Revenue and Customs officer
• an independent tribunal to consider your appeal

You cannot appeal against an information notice (either of the following):

• that has been approved by an independent tribunal
• where the required information or documents forms part of your statutory records

Statutory records are the records that tax law says a person must keep.

If you need more time to give us what we’ve asked for, you should contact the officer who sent you the information notice.

Asking another person for information or documents about you

If you cannot or do not give us with what we’ve asked for, we may need to get it from another person.

If this is the case, we’ll normally ask for your permission before we contact them.

You do not have to give us permission, but we’ll ask you to tell us why you have not given it. If you do not give permission, we’ll normally ask the independent tribunal that deals with tax for approval to give an information notice.

Sometimes we may need to give another person an information notice without asking you for the information or documents first.

If we ask another person for information or documents, we’ll have to give them enough information about you so that they can give us what we need. We will not tell them any more about you than we have to.

What happens if you do not comply with an information notice

If you do not comply with an information notice, we may charge you penalties. There is more information about each of these below.

Penalties

If you do not give us everything the notice asks for by the deadline, we may charge you a £300 penalty.

If you have still not complied with the notice by the time we’ve charged you the £300 penalty, we may then also charge you daily penalties. These will be up to £60 a day for each day that you do not comply.

We may also charge you a £300 penalty if you, or another person acting on your behalf, conceals, destroys, or disposes of any document that we have:

• asked for in an information notice
• told you that we intend to ask for in an information notice

When we will not charge you a penalty for not complying

If we agree that you have a reasonable excuse for not complying with the information notice, we will not charge you a penalty for not complying. However, we’ll ask you to give us the information or documents (or replacement documents) by an agreed date.

A reasonable excuse is something that stopped you from meeting an obligation on time that you took reasonable care to meet. Whether you have a reasonable excuse depends upon the circumstances in which the failure occurred and your particular circumstances and abilities. Once the reasonable excuse has ended, you must put things right without delay. For examples of what does and does not count as a reasonable excuse, go to www.gov.uk/tax-appeals/reasonable-excuses.

If you think you have a reasonable excuse, please tell us.

Penalties for giving inaccurate information or documents

If you carelessly or deliberately give inaccurate information or produce a document containing an inaccuracy, we may charge you a penalty of up to £3,000 for each inaccuracy.

We will not charge you a penalty if you tell us about the inaccuracy at the time you give the information or produce the document. If you later find an inaccuracy, you must tell straightaway.

Concealing, destroying or otherwise disposing of documents — tribunal approved notices

It is a criminal offence to conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of any document that we:

• have asked for in an information notice that has been approved by the tribunal
• told you that we intend to ask for in an information notice that has been approved by the tribunal

We may carry out a criminal investigation with a view to prosecution if you or someone acting on your behalf commits this offence.

What happens if you give us information that you know to be untrue

We may carry out a criminal investigation with a view to prosecution if you give us information that you know to be untrue, whether verbally or in a document.

Legal professional privilege

We cannot insist that you give us information or documents that are covered by legal professional privilege, and which you can refuse to give us because of that privilege. However, if you choose to give them to us, this may help us with our check. If you give them to us, the right for them to stay private would be lost.

Legal professional privilege is an area of the law that only applies in limited circumstances. If you refuse to give us any of the information or documents we’re asking you for because of legal professional privilege, we may challenge that it applies if we do not agree.

You may decide not to give us certain information or documents because you believe they are covered by legal professional privilege. If you do, you’ll need to let us have a list of everything you’re not giving to us. The list should describe each piece of information or document that you’re not giving to us and say why you’re not giving it. You do not have to describe the information or document if describing it would mean revealing private information covered by the privilege.

General information

If you need help

If you, as an individual, have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with us, please tell the officer that has contacted you. We’ll help you in whatever way we can.

For more information about this, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘get help from HMRC if you need extra support’.

If you are not happy with our service

Please tell the person or office you’ve been dealing with. They’ll try to put things right. If you are still not happy, they’ll tell you how to make a formal complaint.

Our privacy notice

Our privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from us when we ask for information or hold information about you. For more information, go to www.gov.uk and search for ‘HMRC Privacy Notice’.