FHDDS51530 | Penalties, sanctions and offences: penalties – policy: Trading without approval - Determining unprompted or prompted disclosure

Whether a disclosure is unprompted or prompted is an objective test. This means it should be based not on what the person believed but what the particular facts and circumstances gave him reason to believe, taking into account the person’s circumstances and abilities.

A national campaign highlighting FHDDS would not stop a disclosure from being unprompted.

However a disclosure would be prompted if a person made the disclosure after:

• they became aware that we had obtained information concerning their obligation to be approved

• we had contacted them regarding fulfilment activities which relate to the obligation to be approved, or

• during the course of a compliance check concerning one tax liability, it became apparent that the business had supplied relevant fulfilment services without approval, and as a result they were told about the requirement to apply.