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AWRS110900 - Calculating the penalty: examples of unprompted or prompted disclosure

Example 1

John takes over a cash and carry business selling a range of products including alcohol. He does not realise he needs to be approved before he can start trading. He reads about the AWRS in a HMRC article in trade press and contacts HMRC immediately. This is an unprompted disclosure.

Example 2

John takes over a cash and carry business selling a range of products including alcohol. He does not realise he needs to be approved before he can start trading. He is contacted by HMRC who received notification from the previous owner that they wanted to cancel their AWRS number as they had sold their business. John realises we have information suggesting he is trading without approval and tells us about it. This is a prompted disclosure because we made contact with him.

Maximum and minimum penalties for each type of behaviour

The following tables show the maximum and minimum penalty percentages for each type of behaviour.

Unprompted disclosure

- Deliberate and concealed Deliberate and not concealed Non-deliberate
Maximum penalty (% of the maximum amount - £10,000 100% 70% 30%
Minimum penalty 30% 20% 10%

Prompted disclosure

- Deliberate and concealed Deliberate and not concealed Non-deliberate
Maximum penalty (% of the maximum amount - £10,000 100% 70% 30%
Minimum penalty 50% 35% 20%