let property campaign

I've not used that actual scheme but I did have to declare rental income going back about 10 years for a client who found out when her husband passed away that he'd never declared any income from their 3 properties on their tax returns. She was so worried about what would happen to her but HMRC were great - they just said to send in a schedule of what we thought was due along with a cheque and that's what we did and they didn't charge any penalties. I think I had to include interest in my calculations. Maybe they went easy on her because of her situation but the whole thing was much easier than I expected it to be!

If you read the rules on how penalties are calculated there are 2 separate scales - one for prompted disclosure and one for unprompted disclosure and the penalties are definitely more if HMRC finds it before you've disclosed it. When HMRC set up these schemes though they usually reduce the standard penalties for the amnesty period.