Rental income disclosure was unprompted

As the result of an enquiry HMRC issued assessments to the taxpayer for rental income from a property. It also issued penalties on the basis that the taxpayer had deliberately failed to notify his liability and that the ultimate disclosure was prompted.

The taxpayer appealed. He claimed that before the enquiry began he had written to HMRC saying he had already made a voluntary notification through the let property campaign hotline and that as a result he wished to ‘fully co-operate’ in bringing his affairs up to date. Further he had a letter from the property campaign helpline confirming his call.

HMRC disputed this saying there was no record of a call from the taxpayer to the hotline. In any event this was not enough to constitute an unprompted disclosure as the taxpayer did not provide full details of the income.

The First-tier Tribunal disagreed. The judge...