TTOG4415 - Investigation work: Code of practice 9: obtaining the disclosure report: delays in submission

It is unsatisfactory and generally inappropriate to use a formal taxpayer information notice to seek to obtain an overdue Disclosure Report.

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This does not mean that matters can be allowed to drift. In cases of delay, whether on the part of the adviser or taxpayer, you should inform them that SI now regards the taxpayer as not having co-operated within the terms of the CDF procedure. You will now conduct your own investigation into the taxpayer’s affairs. The taxpayer will, by their own or adviser’s inaction, have placed themselves outside the category of those who are making a genuine disclosure in response to the CDF procedure.

It will still be possible for the taxpayer to earn penalty reduction through co-operation, and you should use this fact to encourage the taxpayer and adviser to pass you any material which had already been collected or prepared for the Disclosure Report. If this material is not provided promptly, you will need to use formal powers to obtain whatever documentation and information are available and required.

The case will then proceed as one where no disclosure has been made.

It should be quite exceptional for more than one year to pass from the opening meeting without SI either receiving a Disclosure Report or commencing its own investigation. However, there may be times when the circumstances of the case and/or operational considerations make this appropriate. Such instances should always be discussed with the Team Leader. Care should be taken to ensure that decisions to allow more than 12 months for production of a report are clearly and adequately recorded.