In December 2017, HMRC released amended factsheets in order to reflect a change in policy regarding behaviour-based penalties.

Broadly the change means that when certain taxpayers taken a “significant” period of time to correct/disclose an inaccuracy (this would be at least three years), then HMRC will not offer the potential full reduction for the disclosure meaning that the penalty may be increased by 10 per cent.

HMRC has also recently added a small paragraph to its factsheet CC/FS1c General information about compliance checks into certain large and complex businesses. This factsheet provides general information about compliance checks into businesses that have been allocated a HMRC Customer Compliance Manager because of their size or the complexity of their tax affairs.

This factsheet now contains a ‘More information’ section that explains what information HMRC may use when dealing with compliance checks, explaining how HMRC will use information widely available from internet sites and other open source material:

‘HMRC may observe, monitor, record and retain internet data which is available to anyone. This is known as ‘open source’ material and includes news reports, internet sites, Companies House and Land registry records, blogs and social networking sites where no privacy settings have been applied.’