Tax Forum :: Free Tax Advice

My family and I have been back in Australia a few years now. We did spend 3 glorious years in London prior to that during which time I had contract work and my accountant recommended a tax efficient scheme. It seems this and similar schemes, completely legal and declared in all returns at the time, have now been retrospectively declared wrong (still not illegal it would seem) and HMRC have sent us Accelorated Payment Notices for those years asking for enormous sums in £ whilst the legality of it is dealt with in the courts with no clear end in sight.

My question is what powers do HMRC have to recover these amounts from us here in Australia now? We certainly can't afford to pay even if we sold the house we'd fall well short.

Tax authorities worldwide are working more closely together to combat tax avoidance (not the same as evasion, which is criminal). It is likely that the Australian tax authorities would pursue on behalf of HMRC.

There is commentary in the articles at

https://www.ft.com/content/f514a2a2-cfd ... f7778e7377

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatn ... again.html

there may be a gap between what HMRC say they would like to do and what they are able to do. Having said that even if HMRC cannot recover the debt from you abroad using legal processes or with the aid of the Australian tax authorities they would attempt to recover any proved debt were you ever to return to the UK and re-engage with the UK tax system. Any failure to address the issue would therefore effectively mean that you would be prevented from returning to the UK at any time in the future

It would have thought that it would be worth speaking to suitably qualified lawyers and insolvency practitioners in Australia to see what your best options are.