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Received a Letter from HMRC About Your Wealth or Assets?

Received a letter from HMRC about your wealth or assets? Get ahead of it.

If you earn over £200,000, or hold more than £2 million in assets, HMRC counts you as part of its “wealthy” population. HMRC is taking a much closer look at this group. If anything hasn’t been declared, now is the time to put it right, on your terms.

Book a confidential call

*The fee for the call is deducted from the final fee for this service*

What’s happening

HMRC has started writing to some of the UK’s wealthiest individuals, asking them to set out what they own. HMRC treats anyone with income over £200,000 or assets over £2 million in any of the last three years as part of its wealthy population. That’s around 850,000 people.

HMRC is also investing heavily in extra compliance staff to look at exactly this group.

Common things that get missed

You don’t have to be hiding a fortune to have a problem. These are the issues we see most often:

  • Untaxed savings interest. If you earn over £125,140 you get no personal savings allowance, so every pound of interest is taxable.
  • Rental income from a second property, holiday let or room let that was never reported.
  • Gains on shares, crypto or property sales.
  • Overseas income or accounts.
  • Side income from consultancy, directorships or online sales.

Why coming forward first matters

HMRC penalties depend on two things: why the error happened, and whether you told HMRC before they contacted you.

  • Unprompted disclosure (you come forward first): penalties for careless errors can be as low as 0%.
  • Prompted disclosure (after HMRC has been in touch): penalties are higher from the start, and in the most serious cases can reach 100% of the tax owed. Higher penalties can apply to offshore matters.

Once a letter lands, the cheaper option may already be gone.

Crypto: the trap most people don’t know about

Swapping one coin for another is a taxable event. Most people think tax only applies when they cash out to pounds. It doesn’t. Each of these counts as a disposal for Capital Gains Tax:

  • Swapping one cryptoasset for another, for example Bitcoin for Ethereum
  • Selling crypto for pounds or another currency
  • Using crypto to pay for goods or services
  • Giving crypto away, other than to a spouse or civil partner

The annual Capital Gains Tax exemption is now only £3,000. Active traders can be over it without ever withdrawing a penny.

HMRC will soon see your trades. Since 1 January 2026, UK crypto platforms have had to collect customer details under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework. HMRC receives the first data in 2027, and many other countries are sharing data the same way.

How The Tax Hive helps

  1. Confidential review. We go through your income, assets and past returns to find out whether anything needs correcting.
  2. Clear advice. We tell you plainly what is owed, the likely penalty position, and your options.
  3. We handle the disclosure. We prepare and submit it through HMRC’s Digital Disclosure Service, or the Worldwide Disclosure Facility for offshore matters, and deal with HMRC for you.
  4. Peace of mind. You draw a line under it and move on.

Already received a letter?

Don’t ignore it, and don’t reply without advice. What you say first can shape how HMRC treats your case. Contact us before you respond.

Speak to an adviser in confidence

Everything you tell us is treated in strict confidence.

Frequently asked questions

Will HMRC find out anyway?

HMRC receives data from banks, letting agents, the Land Registry, crypto platforms and over 100 countries under international information-sharing agreements. Increasingly, the answer is yes.

I didn’t realise I had to declare it. Am I in trouble?

Genuine mistakes are treated far more leniently than deliberate ones, especially if you come forward first.

How far back does HMRC go?

Usually 4 years for innocent errors, 6 years for careless ones and up to 20 years for deliberate ones.

Do I have to declare crypto if I never cashed out?

Often, yes. Swapping one coin for another is a disposal for Capital Gains Tax, even if no money reached your bank account.

I already have an accountant. Can you still help?

Yes. Many clients come to us for a confidential second opinion.

What is the fee for this service?

Whilst that largely depends on what we discover, at the moment the average fee is around £1,000+VAT for the full service, from the initial call, to the final declaration of any undisclosed information, and all correspondence with HMRC on your behalf as your registered tax agent.

A full breakdown of the fees will be available when the plan is in place, and the initial £75 fee for the discovery call will be deducted from your final invoice.