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HMRC has written to me about foreign income or gains

Last reviewed 31 August 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts

What this letter is
A nudge letter asking you to check whether UK tax is due on foreign income, accounts or assets that overseas banks have reported to HMRC.
Who gets it
People whose names appear in bank and account information that other countries share with HMRC automatically. HMRC compares that data with your tax record before writing. Around twenty thousand of these letters go out each year.
Is the deadline legally binding?
Where this letter gives a reply date, the letter sets it, not the law. The deadline section below explains what that means and what ignoring it can cost.
Your options at a glance
Nothing to correct · Worldwide Disclosure Facility · Amend a recent return · Serious or deliberate cases
Reply window: set by the letter, not by law

Usually 30 days from the date on the letter.

This reply window is set by HMRC's letter, not by law. HMRC has told the Chartered Institute of Taxation that extensions can be requested and are usually agreed when the reason is sensible.

Ignoring the letter has real consequences. HMRC can follow up, open a compliance check, and treat a later disclosure as prompted, which raises the penalty range.

Source: CIOT member guidance, Sept 2024

Why you got it

More than a hundred countries share account information with the UK under the Common Reporting Standard and similar agreements. The letter usually comes from HMRC's Campaigns and Projects Offshore Team.

It asks you to check whether you have UK tax to pay on foreign income or gains, and to respond. Most versions enclose a Certificate of Tax Position and ask you to return it whether or not you owe anything.

Holding the letter now? Paste it into the checker for a plain-English identification.

Your options, honestly

Nothing to correct

If your affairs are right, you can say so. You do not have to use the enclosed certificate to do it. A short letter is accepted, and for anything beyond the very simplest affairs the professional bodies suggest a letter rather than the certificate. Any response you give must be accurate, whatever form it takes.

Worldwide Disclosure Facility

The route HMRC offers for correcting offshore matters. You register through the Digital Disclosure Service, then have 90 days from the acknowledgement to work out the figures, disclose and pay. Complex cases can ask for 90 extra days, 180 in total. These timings are terms of the facility, not the law. Source: GOV.UK WDF guidance, updated 6 Apr 2026.

Amend a recent return

If the affected year is still within the amendment window, generally 12 months from the filing deadline, amending the return may be simpler. That window is fixed by law.

Serious or deliberate cases

Where anything was deliberate, the Contractual Disclosure Facility under Code of Practice 9 exists and offers protection from criminal investigation for full disclosure. This is specialist territory: speak to an adviser before doing anything.

Offshore penalties have their own, tougher rules. For most careless errors the range rises with the country involved, up to 60 percent of the tax for the highest category. For tax years 2015 to 2016 and earlier that were not put right by 30 September 2018, the Failure to Correct rules apply instead: the minimum penalty is 100 percent of the tax even when you come forward voluntarily, and the standard rate is 200 percent. HMRC can also look back up to 12 years for offshore matters even where nobody was careless. If older years might be involved, professional advice is strongly worth having before you respond. Sources: HMRC factsheets CC/FS17 (11 Jan 2022) and the offshore time limits policy paper (6 Jul 2018).

You may owe nothing

Some recipients genuinely owe nothing: the income was already taxed, covered by allowances or relief, or the account data relates to someone with a similar name. If that is you, say so in your response and keep your evidence.

If you do nothing

Expect a follow up letter first. After that HMRC re-assesses the risk and can phone, open an enquiry or investigate. Time limits for assessment are 4 years normally, 6 for carelessness, 20 for deliberate behaviour, and up to 12 years for offshore matters even without carelessness.

The letters themselves say it: if your health or personal circumstances make dealing with this difficult, you can tell HMRC and they can give you extra support. That is a standing HMRC service, and using it is normal.

Already past the date in your letter? Read this before anything else.

Questions worth asking an adviser

  • Which years does my issue actually touch, and do any fall under the Failure to Correct rules?
  • Is the Worldwide Disclosure Facility the right route for me, or should I respond another way?
  • What penalty range realistically applies to my behaviour and my country category?
  • Should I ask HMRC for more time before doing anything else?

Keep the date without keeping the worry

Letters like this give a reply window. Put the date somewhere that is not your head.

Want a professional to look at it?

Some letters are worth handing to a specialist, and knowing when is half the value of a check. An adviser will treat what you say in confidence and will not judge how it got here. If we cannot point you anywhere useful, we will say so.

Where to get help

You can deal with HMRC directly, free, without any adviser. If money is tight: TaxAid (low incomes, older people included) and Citizens Advice help for free.

If Tax Letters ever introduces you to a firm, the firm may pay for the introduction. You never pay Tax Letters for it, and it never changes what these pages say. How Tax Letters is funded.

Sources