Death and taxes

I have a client who ran a restaurant for 30 years as a sole trader and was being investigated by HMRC in relation to his VAT returns. He has been VAT registered since he started trading.

The client had admitted to the officer carrying out the review that his takings had not been fully declared on the returns and the officer was making some calculations to work out how much output tax he considered to be due.

Unfortunately the client died last month so my query relates to the powers the officer now has to raise an assessment – and what penalties would be involved?

My client’s daughter is the sole beneficiary in his will so is particularly concerned about the situation. My understanding is that the officer can assess tax for the past 20 years if deliberate evasion of VAT is involved plus penalties as well. Is...