HMRC Voluntary Disclosure: Which Route to Use

An HMRC voluntary disclosure is how you tell HMRC about tax you should have paid in earlier years before HMRC asks you about it. There isn't one form. HMRC runs several routes, and the right one depends on what the income was, where it arose and why it wasn't declared.

Most people use the Digital Disclosure Service, on its own or through the Worldwide Disclosure Facility (offshore income) or the Let Property Campaign (landlords). Deliberate behaviour has its own route, and a recent mistake may not need a disclosure at all.

This guide explains how to choose the route, the 90-day process, how far back HMRC can go, and the penalty ranges for UK matters.

If you'd like this checked for your own situation, see our Worldwide Disclosure Facility service or our Let Property Campaign service.

What is an HMRC voluntary disclosure?

What counts as voluntary? You come forward yourself, work out the tax, interest and penalty for each year, and make HMRC a formal offer to pay. If HMRC accepts, that settles those years.

HMRC's own term is an unprompted disclosure: you told HMRC before you had any reason to believe it had found the problem or was about to. Anything later is prompted, usually including anything after an HMRC letter about the income.

The difference sets the minimum penalty. For a careless mistake on a return, an unprompted disclosure can bring the penalty down to nil. A prompted one can't go below 15%.

👉 GOV.UK: Make a voluntary disclosure to HMRC

First check: can you just amend your tax return?

Do you need a disclosure at all? Not always. You can amend a Self Assessment return within 12 months of the filing deadline, so a 2024/25 return can usually be corrected until 31 January 2027.

Disclosures cover earlier years. In the 2026/27 tax year:

• 2025/26 income: put it on the 2025/26 return, due by 31 January 2027. If you've never been in Self Assessment, register now. The deadline to tell HMRC was 5 October 2026.

• 2024/25 and earlier: these are the years a disclosure covers. If HMRC has sent you a return for 2022/23 or later that you haven't filed, complete that return and leave the year out.

If you paid too much, that isn't a disclosure either. You claim overpayment relief in writing, within four years of the end of the tax year. See also do I need to file a UK tax return?

👉 GOV.UK: Correct a Self Assessment tax return

Which HMRC disclosure route should you use?

How do you pick? Ask three questions in order: was it deliberate, is any of it offshore, and is it rent from residential property? If all three are no, you use the general route.

Image 1 — Which HMRC disclosure route to use

Cryptoassets and VAT errors have their own services.

Digital Disclosure Service: the general route

The Digital Disclosure Service is HMRC's online service called "Tell HMRC about underpaid tax from previous years". It covers Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, Corporation Tax and National Insurance, for individuals, companies, trusts and estates.

Use it for UK income no campaign covers: freelance or side income, dividends, a missed capital gain, or commercial rent. It can't be used for VAT errors.

👉 GOV.UK: Tell HMRC about underpaid tax from previous years

Worldwide Disclosure Facility: anything offshore

If any part of the unpaid tax relates to an offshore matter, the disclosure goes through the Worldwide Disclosure Facility. That covers foreign income, assets abroad, and untaxed UK money moved overseas. UK income you also need to disclose goes in the same disclosure.

First check that the income was taxable here at all. A non-resident generally isn't taxed in the UK on foreign income, so your status under the Statutory Residence Test for each year comes first. Recent arrivals should also check the 4-year FIG regime. Our Worldwide Disclosure Facility guide covers the offshore rules in full.

Let Property Campaign: residential landlords

Individual landlords with undeclared rent from residential property use the Let Property Campaign. It includes holiday lets and people living abroad who let out a UK home. It doesn't cover commercial property, companies or trusts, which use the general route.

See our Let Property Campaign guide and, if you live overseas, the non-resident landlord scheme.

Contractual Disclosure Facility: deliberate behaviour

The Contractual Disclosure Facility (CDF) sits under HMRC's Code of Practice 9. It is only for tax fraud, meaning deliberate behaviour that caused a loss of tax, not for errors or carelessness.

HMRC may offer a CDF contract when it suspects fraud, or you can ask for one using form CDF1, though HMRC doesn't have to agree. If a contract is offered, you have 60 days to accept or reject it and to send an outline disclosure admitting the deliberate behaviour. In return, if you keep to the contract and disclose everything, HMRC undertakes not to start a criminal investigation into the tax fraud you disclose. It covers only what you disclose and doesn't bind other agencies such as the police.

You can report deliberate behaviour through the Digital Disclosure Service, but HMRC says the CDF is the only route that gives that assurance. HMRC strongly advises independent professional advice first.

👉 GOV.UK: Admit tax fraud to HMRC using the Contractual Disclosure Facility

👉 GOV.UK: Code of Practice 9, where HMRC suspects fraud

Other routes open in October 2026

• Cryptoassets: a separate service for unpaid Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax on cryptoassets. You submit the disclosure, then pay within 30 days.

• VAT errors: net errors of £10,000 or less from the last four years, and some up to £50,000, can be corrected on your next VAT return. Larger or deliberate errors must be reported to HMRC separately.

• Specialist services: separate routes cover research and development relief claimed in error, till system misuse and overclaimed furlough grants.

The Card Transaction Programme and the Second Incomes Campaign have closed, so that income now goes through the general route.

👉 GOV.UK: Tell HMRC about unpaid tax on cryptoassets

👉 GOV.UK: Correct errors in your VAT Return

HMRC disclosure routes compared

How the Digital Disclosure Service process works

What happens once you come forward? The general route and the two campaigns share one online service and process:

1. Notify. Tell HMRC online that you intend to disclose. You don't need figures yet, and each person notifies separately.

2. Get your references. HMRC sends a disclosure reference number and a payment reference number.

3. Disclose within 90 days. The 90 days run from the date HMRC acknowledges your notification. You send the figures for each year with a formal offer.

4. Pay. Payment is due within the same 90 days. If you can't pay in full, call the helpline before you submit.

5. HMRC reviews it. HMRC may ask for more information and, if satisfied, sends an acceptance letter.

If HMRC has already opened an enquiry or compliance check, a disclosure through these routes is unlikely to be accepted. Tell the officer instead.

How far back does a voluntary disclosure to HMRC go?

How many years do you have to include? It depends on your behaviour, because that sets how long HMRC has to assess. Time limits run from the end of the tax year.

HMRC assessing time limits for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax

If you never registered for Self Assessment when you should have, HMRC can go back up to 20 years even if it wasn't deliberate, unless you had a reasonable excuse and put things right without unreasonable delay once it ended. Transitional rules apply to 2008/09 and earlier.

👉 HMRC manual: assessing time limits (CH51300)

👉 Legislation: Taxes Management Act 1970, section 36

What penalties apply to a voluntary disclosure?

How is the penalty worked out? It's a percentage of the tax, set by your behaviour and by whether the disclosure was prompted. Where you land in the range depends on how fully you tell, help and give HMRC access to records.

Image 2 — Penalty ranges for unprompted and prompted disclosures

Penalty ranges for inaccurate returns, UK matters

If you weren't filing returns and never told HMRC you had tax to pay, the failure to notify penalty applies instead. The deliberate ranges are the same. For a non-deliberate failure, an unprompted disclosure is 0% to 30% within 12 months of the tax being due and 10% to 30% after that. A prompted one is 10% to 30%, or 20% to 30% after 12 months.

• Long delays cost more. After three years or more, HMRC usually won't go below 10 percentage points above the bottom of the range.

• Interest is added. It runs daily from the date each year's tax was due, currently at the Bank of England base rate plus 4 percentage points.

Offshore matters have higher ranges, up to 200% of the tax. Our offshore disclosure guide sets those out.

👉 GOV.UK: Penalties for inaccuracies in returns or documents (CC/FS7a)

👉 GOV.UK: Penalties for failure to notify (CC/FS11)

Worked example: freelance income left off a return

• Maya is employed, pays tax at 40% and files a Self Assessment return every year.

• Since April 2020 she has also made £5,000 a year of profit from UK freelance work, and carelessly left it off her returns.

• None of it is offshore or rent, so she uses the Digital Disclosure Service. Careless means six years: 2020/21 to 2025/26.

• Her 2025/26 profit goes on that year's return, due by 31 January 2027. The disclosure covers the other five years, 2020/21 to 2024/25, at £2,000 of Income Tax each: £10,000.

• She comes forward unprompted, so the range is 0% to 30%. Because the errors go back more than three years, HMRC usually won't go below 10%. With full co-operation she offers that: £1,000.

• Her offer is £11,000 plus interest, paid within the 90 days.

Had HMRC written to Maya first, the range would be 15% to 30%. With the same delay, she should expect about 25%: £2,500. The example looks at Income Tax only.

When do you need an adviser?

Can you do a disclosure yourself? For a simple careless error over a few years with good records, many people do. We'd suggest advice before you notify if:

• Any of it may be deliberate. The choice between the Digital Disclosure Service and the CDF is hard to reverse.

• There's an offshore element. The penalty rules are more complex, and foreign tax already paid may reduce the bill.

• Your residence status is uncertain for any of the years, because it decides what the UK could tax.

• HMRC has already written to you, records are missing, or you can't pay in full within 90 days.

The 90-day clock starts once HMRC acknowledges your notification, so gather records and settle the route first. Our international tax advice service covers this.

Common mistakes with HMRC disclosures

• Using the wrong route. Undeclared interest on one overseas bank account moves the whole disclosure to the Worldwide Disclosure Facility.

• Notifying before you're ready. The 90 days may run out before you've rebuilt the figures.

• Disclosing only part of the picture. A disclosure must cover everything you owe, with the behaviour described honestly. If HMRC finds it's largely wrong or incomplete, it can seek higher penalties.

• Waiting for a letter. Once HMRC contacts you about the income, the disclosure is usually prompted and the minimum penalty rises.

Frequently asked questions

What is an HMRC voluntary disclosure?

It's the process of telling HMRC about tax you underpaid in earlier years before HMRC contacts you. You notify HMRC, calculate the tax, interest and penalties for each year, and make a formal offer to pay.

What is the Digital Disclosure Service?

It's HMRC's online service for disclosing income or gains from earlier tax years. You notify HMRC first and receive a disclosure reference and a payment reference. You then have 90 days from HMRC's acknowledgement to disclose and pay.

How far back can HMRC go on a voluntary disclosure?

Up to 4 years if you took reasonable care, 6 years if you were careless and 20 years if it was deliberate. The 20-year limit can also apply if you never told HMRC you had tax to pay. Non-deliberate offshore matters can go back 12 years.

What penalty will I pay for a voluntary disclosure?

For UK matters disclosed unprompted, a careless error on a return carries 0% to 30% of the tax, deliberate behaviour 20% to 70%, and deliberate and concealed 30% to 100%. Offshore ranges are higher, and interest is added.

Will I be prosecuted if I make a voluntary disclosure?

HMRC says a full and unprompted disclosure suggests a civil rather than criminal investigation is more appropriate, but that isn't a guarantee. The Contractual Disclosure Facility, for deliberate behaviour, is the only route that gives an assurance against criminal investigation of the tax fraud you disclose.