From: Chris Blunt 
Newsgroups: uk.legal uk.finance uk.consultants
Subject: Re: passport renewal with unpaid tax
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 12:17:56 +0800

On 7 Feb 2006 13:40:43 -0800, "expat360"  wrote:

>I left the UK about nine years ago and am now resident in the US.
>Before leaving I was self-employed and for the last year of
>self-employment filed a tax return but for complex reasons never made
>payment of this tax.
>
>My UK passport is about to expire and I am wondering whether applying
>to renew it (in the US) will result in either a) the renewal being
>denied because of outstanding unpaid tax, b) the Inland Revenue being
>alerted to my present location and commencing recovery proceedings for
>these monies, or c) both.
>
>Would it be advisable to wait until I become a naturalized US citizen
>in a couple of years and then simply apply for a US passport?  As a
>resident, I do not need a passport unless I intend to travel (which I
>do not).
>
>The sum involved is not large (around GBP 6,000 if I recall) and dates
>back around ten years.  I have however heard that the IR are now raking
>over cases much older than the normal six year limit in order to
>reclaim large amounts of unpaid taxes.
>
>Can anyone offer any advice?

There's nothing other than your name to link your passport with any
records the Inland Revenue may have on you, so renewing a passport is
unlikely to have any other consequences. Presumably you are intending
to renew the passport at a British embassy or consulate in the US. If
this is the case, then the passport will be issued locally rather than
in the UK, so there's even less likelihood of a connection being made.

Because of government cutbacks, consular staff have enough on their
plates just to cope with their existing workloads without having to
plough through lists of names of people who might not have paid some
tax due many years ago.

Chris