Preventing Delayed Overseas Income Disclosure Among New Uk Tax Residents: A Behaviourally Informed Policy Proposal

This paper examines delayed overseas income disclosure among new UK tax residents and proposes a Residency Tax Orientation Statement (RTOS) as an early guidance intervention within HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Government Gateway digital services. It identifies a recurring compliance pattern in which some individuals entering the UK tax system through Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) employment treat employer withholding as if it settles their full tax obligations. As a result, overseas income, including rental receipts, business profit distributions, foreign investment returns, and overseas pension income, may remain undeclared for several tax years. In some cases, HMRC detects such non-compliance only after a substantial delay, by which point retrospective assessment, interest charges, and penalties may be difficult to avoid. The proposed RTOS would address this information gap through a brief yes-or-no orientation check presented at an early administrative touchpoint, directing users to relevant guidance without creating tax liability, requiring asset disclosure, or triggering enforcement action. Drawing on behavioural tax compliance theory, comparative tax administration, and published HMRC administrative data, the paper argues that a low-cost, well-timed intervention within existing digital infrastructure may help reduce delayed disclosure, improve taxpayer understanding of worldwide income obligations, and lower the volume of multi-year compliance investigations. More broadly, the paper shows how a preventative compliance approach may be incorporated into existing UK administrative arrangements