Revenue published eBrief No. 04/12 as a reminder to practitioners that if tax due on foot of an unprompted disclosure is not paid, Revenue will not regard the disclosure as a qualifying disclosure. In turn this could mean that publication of the disclosure could occur.

In eBrief No. 04/12 Revenue refer to Paragraph 2.7.4 of the Code of Practice for Revenue Audit which provides that a ‘real, genuine and accepted proposal to pay the agreed liability (involving payment or an agreed phased payment arrangement made in accordance with Revenue's instalment arrangement procedures) will satisfy the payment criteria for a qualifying disclosure’.

This isn't a change in the existing rule or understanding – a Qualifying Disclosure always had to have a payment element. It may however reflect a stricter approach by Revenue towards QD and settlement arrangements generally, and/or more circumstances arising where taxpayers may wish to come clean but don't have the financial wherewithal to do so.

But we need to be careful to distinguish between people who are published because of persistent default, and people who are published simply because of a lack of funds.