OT45420 - Non-residents working on the UK continental shelf: recovery of tax: advance notice of formal action

By agreement with the industry LB Oil & Gas will issue a warning letter in advance of formal notices. The letter will give details of the tax, the name of the non-resident and the accounting period or year of assessment involved. The letter asks that LB Oil & Gas should be notified as soon as possible of any special factors that the company thinks should be taken into account. The letter gives the company the opportunity, where appropriate, of checking its records on payments made to the non-resident contractor and the terms of its contract and enables the company to try to bring pressure on the non-resident to meet his tax bill. A pause of four weeks is built in to the system at this stage to allow time for this.

In order to fulfil the requirements of the recovery provisions it is necessary to provide particulars of the assessment made on the non-resident. This includes details of the amount of tax charged. By agreement with the industry, in circumstances where a sub-contractor is not directly employed by the licence holder, disclosure of additional information is limited to the name of the main contractor.