On 16 July 2015 the UK tax authority HMRC launched consultations on penalties for non-compliance in relation to offshore income and assets. The consultation papers consider options for strengthening civil penalties for tax evasion involving hiding taxable income, gains and assets in non-UK territories; civil penalties for the enablers of offshore evasion; a corporate criminal offence for failing to prevent the facilitation of evasion; and a new criminal offence for offshore evaders.

The consultation on strengthened penalties for offshore evasion comes at a time when information exchange with other jurisdictions is being stepped up. The common reporting standard will provide for automatic information exchange from 2017 giving HMRC greater access to information on offshore accounts, trusts and shell companies.

The disclosure facilities currently offered by HMRC for disclosure of offshore income and assets are closing at the end of 2015. They will be replaced by a tougher disclosure facility that will be available before the data exchange begins under the common reporting standard in 2017.

The consultation on penalties for non-compliance looks at four options for changing the civil penalties. The minimum penalty for disclosures of offshore income and gains, currently 20%, could be increased to 30% or 35%. The actual level of penalty imposed would still take into account the extent of disclosure and cooperation by the taxpayer. The consultation also considers expanding the amount of facts requiring to be disclosed to achieve the maximum reduction in penalties, for example requiring details of how the funds were moved offshore and who assisted the tax evasion. The consultation also looks at the possibility of an additional asset-based penalty for the most serious cases, or a new special penalty to be imposed by the Upper Tribunal in exceptional cases. There is also discussion of the possibility of non-financial deterrents such as amending the naming provisions for offshore offenders.

The consultation paper on civil penalties for enablers of offshore tax evasion considers the definition of offshore tax evasion for this purpose; discusses what is meant by an enabler of offshore tax evasion; and considers gaps in the current civil penalties for enablers exhibiting careless or deliberate conduct. The discussion paper looks at how HMRC would establish that a taxpayer has been involved in offshore tax evasion and what sanctions could be imposed on the people who deliberately assisted that taxpayer to evade tax, including public naming of deliberate enablers.

The third consultation document looks at a new corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. This would look at making corporations accountable for failing to prevent their agents from criminally facilitating tax evasion. It also looks at safeguards to make sure that corporations are not liable where they have taken reasonable steps to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion by their agents.

The fourth consultation document looks at a new criminal offence for offshore evaders. This discusses the introduction of a strict liability criminal offence that would be an additional tool for the government in tackling tax evasion. It first considers responses to a previous consultation on offshore evasion strategy held in 2014 and then sets out the general framework of the new criminal offence and the suitable safeguards. The offence would apply to individuals in relation to evasion of income and capital gains tax, applying to conduct that causes significant revenue loss. Draft legislation for the offence is also set out in the document.

Comments on the consultation documents should be sent to HMRC by 8 October 2015.