Pay Loan Charge over 3 years

[Ozcontractor]

Hi apologies if this has been asked elsewhere. I am a contractor living in Australia since 2013 and have not had any UK income since then.

As at Sept 30 last year, I elected to pay the loan charge and split the amount over 3 years. To that end, I have filed a 18/19 return and a 19/20 return, declaring one third of the outstanding loan balance in each of those years. I have also paid the tax owing for those years. This would imply that I now have to declare the final third of the loan balance in the upcoming 20/21 self assessment return.

The question I have is are HMRC still pursuing this - ie what would happen if I don't file the 20/21 return and include that 3rd year amount? Given I'm living overseas, I haven't been following any latest developments or how HMRC is treating that final year of the 3 year balance being declared on the self assessment returns i.e are they pursuing that aggressively or has it fallen off their priority?

Appreciate any views on this thank you.

[DealorNoDeal]

I've no idea how meticulously HMRC are checking that people make all three declarations.

But if you do fail to declare it, and this gets flagged up, then you would be liable to penalties. It might be worth finding out what those penalties are so you are at least aware of what the worst case scenario could be. You could try and come up with a "reasonable excuse" for non-compliance but HMRC are not very forgiving.

If they do collar you, and you don't respond, they might be able to request the help of the ATO in collecting the debt.