Requirement to Correct

Requirement to Correct (RtC) was a law HMRC used to prompt those with undeclared offshore income, wealth or assets to declare it by 30th September 2018.

If you didn’t comply with the Requirement to Correct before the deadline, you faced penalties for failing to correct. Officially, this was called FtC – Failure to Correct. And the penalties were significant.

• At least 100% of what you owe
• Most commonly, you paid 200% of unpaid penalties
• A second penalty of up to 50%
• An asset-based penalty where you paid 10% of the asset and also got named and shamed!

What if I had an excuse for missing the Requirement to Correct deadline?

Whether your excuse was human error, tax fraud or even just careless behaviour, you were penalised in the same way. If you believe that you had a reasonable excuse for missing the Requirement to Correct deadline – such as a close family bereavement or you were in hospital – it is essential that you rectify the issue immediately and contact HMRC to apply for a reasonable excuse extension. If you want to appeal a fine for submitting or paying your tax return late, you will need a reasonable excuse for HMRC. HMRC only accepts severe reasons for failing to submit or pay your tax returns on time. Some potentially acceptable reasons include:

• You or someone in your immediate family died around the tax deadline
• You were in the hospital
• The HMRC website didn’t work on that day
• The postal service  made a mistake or had a delay
• A fire, flood, or some other disaster prevented you from completing your tax return on time