The UK has Automatic Exchange of Information agreements with over 100 countries, so HMRC knows if you have declared your foreign income or not.
According to the UK Parliament, there were 6.2 million people (9% of the total population) living in the UK who had another nationality. Within our Central London, Putney and Richmond offices, we also have foreign-born colleagues who had previously worked in another country. With international migration now a common trend, it is not uncommon to see some people struggling with foreign tax issues, particularly when they thought they had reported in another country but received a letter from HMRC pertaining to the overseas income.
One of our clients, Victor from Richmond-Upon-Thames, had previously lived and worked in Singapore for a decade, during which time he acquired some shares and a few assets. When Victor came to work in London, he didn’t pay much attention to his tax affairs as he is on PAYE. It also didn’t cross his mind that he had to report the small (and irregular) income he still receives and remains in his bank account there.
But one day Victor received a letter from HMRC about his foreign earnings which he had not reported in the UK. Panicked, Victor came to our Richmond-Upon-Thames office and asked for our help. Our personal tax accountants analysed Victor’s position and advised on the correct remedy to rectify his tax filing requirements. Seeing how swiftly we acted and provided him with a satisfactory result, Victor has now engaged us to report his future foreign income through Self Assessment tax return service.
Worldwide Disclosure Facility (WDF)
If you have foreign interests, chances are you need to make a disclosure through the WDF, and preferably you do it before HMRC sends you a letter. If you aren’t sure if a disclosure is required, talk to our qualified personal tax accountants. We can review your specific circumstance and make the best recommendations.
The WDF users
HMRC wants anyone needing to disclose a UK tax liability that relates wholly or partly to an offshore issue to use the WDF. An offshore issue includes unpaid or omitted tax relating to:
- Income arising from a source in a territory outside the UK
- Assets situated or held in a territory outside the UK
- Activities carried on wholly or mainly in a territory outside the UK
- Anything having effect as if it were income, assets or activities of a kind described above
The WDF should also be used when you have funds connected to unpaid or omitted UK tax that you have transferred to a territory outside the UK or are owned in a territory outside the UK.
Examples of tax liabilities that you need to declare
- Income from letting residential property or land
- Capital Gains from assets that increased in value between the time you bought them and the time you sold or transferred them
- Income from running a business
- Income from freelance or commission-based work
- Income from accepting credit card or debit card payments
- Investment income
- Any other incomes that you should have paid tax on
Call Tax Agility on 020 8108 0090 about disclosing your foreign income on the Worldwide Disclosure Facility today.
The WDF process
To use the WDF process, you must first register and HMRC will issue you a unique disclosure reference number.
After the registration process, you have 90 days to:
- Gather the information you need to fill in your disclosure
- Calculate the final liabilities including tax, duty, interest and penalties
- Compete the online form
As the WDF process may not be straightforward, we do encourage those who have foreign assets to come to us for professional advice first or allow us to file on behalf of you.
Don’t underestimate the implications
HMRC wants to send a strong deterrent message to those who don’t disclose their foreign assets. Accordingly, if you fail to make an accurate disclosure or refuse to provide supporting documents allowing HMRC to check the accuracy, you may receive a higher penalty and have your details published on the gov.uk website. Also, HMRC may choose to launch a civil or criminal investigation against you. To save yourself from the headache and unwanted attention, it is best to speak to our qualified personal tax accounts first.
Personal tax accountants at Tax Agility
Tax issues are never straightforward and things can get complicated quickly if you have foreign assets which you may not know that you need to declare and pay tax on.
Fortunately, our personal tax accountants are here to assist. We will first seek to understand your tax affairs and identify what needs to be disclosed through the Worldwide Disclosure Facility (or not).
Should a disclosure is needed, we can help to register you, prepare and submit your disclosure, work out how much tax, interest and penalties you may need to pay, and negotiate a payment arrangement if it is needed. Working with you every step of the way, we can help to make sure that you aren’t paying more than you should, and the disclosure matter will be completed quickly, efficiently and professionally.
Call us today on 020 8108 0090 and speak to a knowledgeable tax specialist in either our London Richmond-Upon-Thames office or our London Putney Office.