Guidance on Issuing Identity Unknown Notices for Tax Compliance Checks

Revenue Scotland identity unknown notices

An identity unknown notice lets Revenue Scotland, with tribunal approval, require information or documents about a person or group of people whose identities are not yet known. This is a limited and intrusive power, so it can only be used to check a devolved tax position where strict legal conditions are met.

• The notice must relate to checking the tax position of an unidentified person or an unidentified class of persons, not to a general search for information.
• Revenue Scotland cannot issue this type of notice without prior tribunal approval.
• The tribunal must be satisfied that Revenue Scotland does not know the identity involved, has reasonable grounds to suspect possible non-compliance, and that this could seriously prejudice tax assessment or collection.
• The tribunal must also be satisfied that the information or documents cannot readily be obtained from another source.
• Guidance says “serious prejudice” means a serious risk to effective tax assessment or collection, with tax avoidance and fraud given as examples.
• The existence of a notice does not prove wrongdoing; it means the legal threshold for issuing the notice was considered met on the facts.

Scroll down for the full analysis.

Revenue Scotland identity unknown notices: when information can be required about people not yet identified

This page explains a specific power under the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014. It allows Revenue Scotland, with tribunal approval, to require information or documents even where it does not yet know the identity of the taxpayer, or of each taxpayer within a class. This matters because it is an unusual and intrusive power, and it can only be used if strict conditions are met.

What this rule is about

Normally, a tax authority asks for information about a named person. An identity unknown notice is different. It is aimed at finding information relevant to the tax position of:

• a person whose identity is not known, or
• a class of persons whose individual identities are not known.

The purpose must still be to check a tax position. In other words, the notice is not a general fishing exercise. It is a tool for obtaining information or documents that Revenue Scotland reasonably requires in order to check whether devolved tax obligations have been met.

The source material is Revenue Scotland guidance on section 127 of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014.

What the official source says

Revenue Scotland says it may give an information notice, called an identity unknown notice, requiring information and/or documents where that is reasonably required for checking the tax position of an unidentified person or unidentified class of persons.

However, Revenue Scotland cannot give this kind of notice on its own authority. It must first obtain tribunal approval.

The tribunal may only approve the notice if four conditions are all satisfied:

• Condition A: Revenue Scotland does not know the identity of the person, or the individual identities of the class of persons.
• Condition B: there are reasonable grounds for believing that the person, or any person within the class, may not have complied or may not comply with a legal provision relating to a devolved tax.
• Condition C: that possible failure is likely to have led, or to lead, to serious prejudice to the assessment or collection of tax.
• Condition D: Revenue Scotland cannot readily obtain the information or documents from somewhere else.

The guidance also explains what “serious prejudice” means in this context. It means that the possible non-compliance has created, or could create, a serious risk to the effective assessment or collection of tax. The guidance gives tax avoidance and tax fraud as examples of situations that could amount to such a risk.

The source also notes that special rules apply to reviews and appeals concerning information notices.

What this means in practice

This power is tightly controlled. Revenue Scotland cannot use it merely because it would be useful to know more about an unidentified group. It must persuade the tribunal that there is a real and reasoned basis for concern, and that the concern is serious enough to affect tax assessment or collection in an important way.

In practice, the notice is likely to be relevant where Revenue Scotland can see signs of possible devolved tax non-compliance but does not yet know exactly who the taxpayers are. The guidance points in particular to cases involving avoidance or fraud risk.

The “cannot readily get the information elsewhere” requirement is also important. If the information could easily be obtained from another source, that undermines the case for using this power. So the notice is intended to be a last-resort or at least a not-readily-available-elsewhere power, rather than the first step in an enquiry.

For the recipient of the notice, the practical point is that the notice may require information or documents about people who are not named individually. That does not make the notice invalid by itself. The legal basis for the notice is that the identities are not yet known.

How to analyse it

If you are trying to understand whether an identity unknown notice is within the scope of the legislation, the key questions are:

• Is the notice genuinely about checking the tax position of an unidentified person or unidentified class, rather than gathering information more generally?
• Does Revenue Scotland truly not know the identity of the relevant person or persons?
• Are there reasonable grounds for believing there may be non-compliance with devolved tax law?
• Is the possible non-compliance serious enough to risk effective tax assessment or collection?
• Can the information or documents be readily obtained from another source?
• Has the tribunal approved the notice?

Each of those questions matters. Failure on any one of them should prevent approval.

It is also important to separate different issues:

• The legislation sets the legal conditions for tribunal approval.
• The guidance explains how Revenue Scotland understands and applies those conditions.
• The existence of a notice does not by itself prove non-compliance; it means the tribunal was satisfied that the statutory threshold for issuing the notice was met.

Example

Illustration: suppose Revenue Scotland has evidence suggesting that a number of land transactions may have been structured in a way that avoids devolved tax, but it does not yet know the identities of all the taxpayers involved. It believes there are reasonable grounds to suspect non-compliance, and that the suspected arrangements create a serious risk to proper tax collection. If the relevant information cannot readily be obtained elsewhere, Revenue Scotland may ask the tribunal to approve an identity unknown notice requiring a third party to provide specified information or documents that would help identify the taxpayers and check their tax position.

This example is only an illustration of how the statutory conditions might operate. Whether the conditions are actually met would depend on the facts.

Why this can be difficult in practice

Several parts of the test are fact-sensitive.

First, “reasonable grounds for believing” is more than a vague suspicion, but it does not require proof of actual non-compliance. The threshold sits between speculation and certainty.

Second, “serious prejudice” is not defined by a numerical test in the source material. The guidance says it means a serious risk to effective assessment or collection of tax. That leaves room for judgement about how serious the risk is in a particular case.

Third, the requirement that Revenue Scotland cannot “readily” get the material elsewhere may be contentious. Information might exist somewhere else in theory, but not be realistically obtainable without significant difficulty or delay. The source does not set out a detailed test for where that line is drawn.

Finally, where the notice concerns a class of persons rather than one unknown individual, there may be questions about how clearly that class has been identified. The source confirms that a class can be targeted, but the statutory conditions still need to be met.

Key takeaways

• An identity unknown notice allows Revenue Scotland to seek information about taxpayers whose identities are not yet known.
• It cannot be issued without tribunal approval, and all four statutory conditions must be satisfied.
• The power is aimed at cases involving a real and serious risk to devolved tax assessment or collection, especially where the information cannot readily be obtained elsewhere.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Guidance on Issuing Identity Unknown Notices for Tax Compliance Checks

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