Legislation – Finance Act 2026

In paragraph 5(6) of Schedule 13 to FA 2020 (joint and several liability of company directors etc) after paragraph (g) (inserted by section 162(8)) insert—

“(h)

section 171 of FA 2026 (promoter action notices: penalties).”

172Publication

(1)

Subsection (2) applies if—

(a)

a penalty under section 171 has been imposed on a recipient of a promoter action notice, and

(b)

notice of appeal against the penalty can no longer be given or, if notice has been given, the appeal has been determined or withdrawn.

(2)

An authorised officer of Revenue and Customs may publish—

(a)

the recipient’s name (including any trading name, previous name or pseudonym);

(b)

any address used by the recipient;

(c)

any other information that the authorised officer considers appropriate for the purposes of identifying the recipient or their business;

(d)

details of the recipient’s failure to comply;

(e)

details of the penalty imposed on the recipient under section 171.

(3)

Before publishing information under this section, an authorised officer of Revenue and Customs must—

(a)

notify the recipient of their intention to publish, including the information that they intend to publish, and—

(b)

allow the recipient 30 days from the date of notification to make representations to HMRC.

(4)

Information published under this section must be withdrawn no later than 12 months after its publication.

(5)

Nothing in this section limits the circumstances in which information may be disclosed under section 18(2) of CRCA 2005 or under any other enactment or rule of law.

173Reporting to regulators etc

(1)

This section applies if an authorised officer of Revenue and Customs considers that a recipient of a promoter action notice—

(a)

failed to comply with the notice, and

(b)

did so without reasonable excuse.

(2)

An authorised officer of Revenue and Customs may, for the permitted purpose, disclose the following information to a regulator, representative body or trade body of the recipient—

(a)

the recipient’s name (including any trading name, previous name or pseudonym);

(b)

any address used by the recipient;

(c)

any other information that the authorised officer considers appropriate for the purposes of identifying the recipient or their business;

(d)

details of the recipient’s failure to comply;

(e)

details of any penalty imposed on the recipient under section 171;

(f)

any other information that the authorised officer considers appropriate for the permitted purpose.

(3)

In this section, the “permitted purpose” means assisting the person to whom the information is disclosed in relation to—

(a)

a current or future investigation into the failure referred to in subsection (1), or

(b)

any other action taken, or to be taken, by the person in relation to that failure.

(4)

Before disclosing information under this section, an authorised officer of Revenue and Customs must—

(a)

notify the recipient of their intention to disclose it, including—

(i)

their reasons for considering that subsection (1) applies, and

(ii)

the information that they intend to disclose, and

(b)

allow the recipient 30 days from the date of notification to—

(i)

comply with any requirements specified in the promoter action notice, or

(ii)

make representations to HMRC.

(5)

A person to whom an authorised officer of Revenue and Customs discloses information under this section—

(a)

may use it only for the purpose for which it was disclosed, and

(b)

may not further disclose it without the consent of HMRC (which may be general or specific).

(6)

Where a person contravenes subsection (5)(b) by disclosing information relating to a person whose identity—

(a)

is specified in the disclosure, or

(b)

can be deduced from it,

section 19 of CRCA 2005 (offence of wrongful disclosure) applies in relation to the disclosure as it applies in relation to a disclosure in contravention of section 20(9) of that Act.

(7)

Nothing in this section limits the circumstances in which information may be disclosed under section 18(2) of CRCA 2005 or under any other enactment or rule of law.

174Extension of time periods

For the purposes of sections 171 and 173, a failure of a person to do anything within a limited period of time is to be disregarded if the person did the thing within such further period of time, if any, as an officer of Revenue and Customs allowed.

175Reasonable excuse

For the purposes of sections 171 and 173—

(a)

an insufficiency of funds is not a reasonable excuse unless attributable to events outside the person’s control,

(b)

if the person relies on any other person to do anything, that is not a reasonable excuse unless the first person took reasonable care to avoid the failure,

(c)

if the person had a reasonable excuse for the failure but the excuse has ceased, the person is to be treated as having continued to have the excuse if the failure is remedied without unreasonable delay after the excuse ceased, and

(d)

reliance on legal advice is to be taken automatically not to constitute a reasonable excuse if either—

(i)

the advice was not based on a full and accurate description of the facts, or

(ii)

the conclusions in the advice that the person relied upon were unreasonable.