Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Disclosure definition

What does Disclosure mean? Disclosure describes the process in litigation by which a party identifies, lists and, where not protected by privilege, allows inspection of documents within its control that are relevant to the issues in dispute, including confirming that a document exists or has existed. It covers paper and electronic material (ESI), and carries a continuing duty to preserve and disclose. In England and Wales, disclosure is governed by the Civil Procedure Rules: standard disclosure and inspection under Part 31, and in the Business and Property Courts, initial and extended disclosure under Practice Direction 57AD. Parties must conduct a reasonable and proportionate search, list...

Avoiding HMRC discovery assessments: sufficient disclosure, ‘information made available’, and the hypothetical officer in UK direct taxes (Veltema, Charlton, Pattullo, Beagles)

Published by a LexisNexis Tax expert

Practice notes

Discovery assessments

A discovery assessment is an HMRC assessment to charge tax (or additional tax) where it identifies that too little tax was assessed for an earlier tax year or Accounting period. HMRC will typically issue a discovery assessment when it is out of time to open an enquiry into the Relevant tax return. This Practice Note concentrates on one specific element of the discovery rules: in some circumstances, HMRC can only make a discovery assessment if, at a given point in time, it did not have sufficient information to be aware of a potential loss of tax.

For an explanation of the following:

HMRC’s power to open an enquiry, and the relevant time limits within which it may do so
the meaning of HMRC making a ‘discovery’ (of a potential loss of tax)
the taxpayer’s ability to avoid a discovery assessment where the return was prepared in line with prevailing practice
the time limits for making discovery assessments

see the Practice Note: HMRC compliance checks, enquiries and discovery assessments. This Practice Note concerns discovery assessments in relation to income tax, capital gains tax and corporation tax...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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