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HMRC are in the midst of offering a special deal for those who have been up to no good with their tax affairs overseas, but will those who want to come clean about their onshore affairs get the same advantages, asks John Andrews?

Background 

When HMRC had their last "amnesty" in 2008, called the Offshore Disclosure Facility, they had, in rather small print, a parallel offer to those who wanted to confess their tax sins in respect of income and gains in the UK.

I thought at the time that this was rather unfair. Here we had a special offer with lots of publicity for those who had cheated HMRC by not disclosing offshore things (generally richer people) but a low-key, onshore initiative, which would not have been spotted if you didn't have an agent to represent you (generally poorer people).

Now here we go again. As from September 2009 we have had a “New Disclosure Opportunity”, a "closing down sale" event for people who have a guilty secret overseas. But this time we have no onshore equivalent.

Whatever the reason, it seems to me to be unfair. This time it is clear that HMRC have an organised publicity campaign to get people running to them with hatfuls of cash, if they fraudulently evaded tax in the UK and then parked it in Liechtenstein or elsewhere offshore. But if I am Joe Public, cash business of this UK parish, who might not have disclosed some UK takings over the last few years and want to get it off my chest quickly, cleanly and with certainty, then I doubt that I am going to get the same red carpet treatment, if I didn’t take the further step of hiding it overseas.

I'm sure I will be told I can always pop into my friendly local tax office and freely confess and I will get the same sort of deal. But that is not the same; there are all sorts of uncertainties and anyway, if the top tax man says to the rich that they can pay "what they owe with penalties on more favourable terms than normal", why can't Joe Public be told the same thing?

Something doesn't feel quite right here. I’d like to see equal treatment given to those who have been in the UK “informal economy” and now want to move into the mainstream tax system.