Heads up: anyone with open loan scheme years

[Chevalier]

No, the 12-year window for offshore is new legislation. It doesn't help HMRC that much with loan schemes because everything since Dec 2010 is already caught by the loan charge.

The Hoey counter-offensive enables HMRC to go after all the pre-Dec 2010 open enquiries.

The 12 year window could also potentially allow HMRC to unlock any years where no discovery / enquiry has been raised to date. It just depends how motivated they are to pursue this.

Remember the loan charge never settled any underlying tax dispute.

[DealorNoDeal]

Remember the loan charge never settled any underlying tax dispute.

True but it persuaded a lot of people to settle. And, even if some people didn't settle and paid the LC instead, HMRC still got their pound of flesh.

It's the pre-Dec 2010 years that HMRC will have in their sights now. I bet they're still smarting after Morse took them out of scope of the LC.

[Fred Bloggs]

True but it persuaded a lot of people to settle. And, even if some people didn't settle and paid the LC instead, HMRC still got their pound of flesh.

It's the pre-Dec 2010 years that HMRC will have in their sights now. I bet they're still smarting after Morse took them out of scope of the LC.

Won't Hector have to say there's tax fraud or the like to enable action on pre 2010 tax avoidance schemes? A high bar?

[Chevalier]

Won't Hector have to say there's tax fraud or the like to enable action on pre 2010 tax avoidance schemes? A high bar?

Pre 2010, Hoey just makes HMRC’s job easier for open years.

Of course any income from Apr - Dec 2010 is still potentially in scope for discovery if genuinely is overseas.

[DealorNoDeal]

Won't Hector have to say there's tax fraud or the like to enable action on pre 2010 tax avoidance schemes? A high bar?

Not if the years are already open, which is probably true in the majority of cases.

HMRC won't like letting go of the closed years, which would have been caught by the pre-Morse LC, but as you say there's not much they can do about them without invoking the 20-year rule for deliberate non-compliance.