Land Transaction Tax: notices about unknown people
Unidentified third party notices
The WRA can seek records about unknown people where there is a serious tax risk, but a tribunal must approve the request.
- The WRA must be unable to obtain the material elsewhere.
- There must be reasonable grounds for concern about serious harm to tax assessment or collection.
- The tribunal can change the proposed notice.
Scroll down for the full analysis.
Read the original guidance here:
Land Transaction Tax notices about unknown people
Sometimes, the Welsh Revenue Authority, or WRA, can seek information about people it cannot name. In Wales, Land Transaction Tax (LTT) replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in 2018, so these powers can matter when information is needed about transactions whose taxpayers are not yet identified. It cannot simply send this type of request whenever it wants. Tribunal approval must come first.
What this rule is about
Usually, a tax check starts with a known person. WRA may know who bought land, made a return, or may have missed one. It can then ask questions about that person.
An unidentified third party notice is different. It seeks information about an unknown person or a group whose individual members are not known. Someone else who may hold useful records receives the notice.
This is a targeted information power. Its purpose is to deal with a real risk that tax cannot be worked out or collected because the people involved have not come forward.
What the official source says
According to official WRA guidance, it may issue this kind of notice only after a tribunal approves it. Following that approval, the notice may require its recipient to provide information or produce documents about an unknown person or a class of people. Approval is essential.
- WRA must ask a tribunal to approve the notice.
- For approval, the tribunal must be satisfied that the WRA cannot get the material from another source.
- There must be reasonable grounds to think the unknown person, or people, have failed or may fail to follow tax law.
- Such a failure must have caused, or be likely to cause, serious harm to assessing or collecting a WRA-collected tax.
- The tribunal can alter the proposed notice if it thinks that is appropriate.
One example in the guidance is a land transaction where the WRA has reason to think someone will not come forward and make a tax return. Not knowing the person’s identity does not end the enquiry.
What this means in practice
If you receive a notice, it may not name the person whose tax affairs concern the WRA. Instead, it may describe a group or a type of transaction. That can feel broad, but tribunal approval is a required safeguard.
The key point is this: to obtain approval, the WRA must explain why another source will not provide the material and why there is a serious tax risk. Curiosity is not enough.
- Read who must provide the information or documents.
- Read carefully how the people or group are described.
- Check exactly what records the notice asks for.
- Identify whether the request concerns LTT or another tax collected by the WRA.
- Keep records that show what information you hold and what you have supplied.
You may assume this only affects the unknown people being checked. It does not. The immediate duty falls on the person who receives the notice.
How to analyse it
Start with the proposed request, rather than guessing why the WRA is interested. Then work through the safeguards in the order set out in the official guidance.
- Is this an unidentified third party notice rather than a notice about a named person?
- Has a tribunal approved it?
- What information or documents does the notice cover?
- Who are the unknown people, or what is the described group?
- Why does the WRA say it cannot obtain the material elsewhere?
- What facts suggest a failure, or possible future failure, to follow tax law?
- Why does the WRA say that failure creates serious harm to tax assessment or collection?
- Has the tribunal changed any part of the notice?
What actually matters is not whether the WRA would find the records useful. The question is whether the conditions for tribunal approval are met.
Example
Suppose the WRA has information suggesting that people involved in certain land deals have not made LTT returns. It does not know each person’s name. If another person holds documents that could identify those people, the WRA may ask a tribunal to approve a notice for those documents.
Approval would depend on the safeguards. Before approving it, the tribunal would need to be satisfied that the WRA cannot obtain the material elsewhere and that reasonable grounds show a serious risk to assessing or collecting tax. It could also change the request before approval.
Why this can be difficult in practice
The phrase “serious prejudice” is important. It means the issue is not just a minor administrative gap. Yet the supplied guidance does not set a fixed measure for deciding what is serious in every case.
The description of an unknown group can also matter. A request may concern people linked by a type of transaction, rather than a list of names. Understanding that description is often the first practical task.
- A notice does not prove that someone has done anything wrong.
- The WRA must have tribunal approval before issuing this type of notice.
- Useful information alone is not enough under the guidance.
- The WRA must show it cannot obtain the material from another source.
- The tribunal may approve a changed notice rather than the version first proposed.
Key takeaways
- This power can concern unknown people or an unknown group.
- A tribunal must approve the notice first.
- The WRA must show both a serious tax risk and no other source for the material.
Technical analysis
For advisers, and for anyone who wants to check the law behind this page. You do not need this section to understand the guidance above.
Official guidance
The pages below are the Welsh Revenue Authority’s guidance. Guidance is not law. It sets out how the Welsh Revenue Authority reads the legislation, and it is not binding on you, on a tribunal or on a court. Where guidance and the legislation differ, the legislation wins. the Welsh Revenue Authority can also change or withdraw guidance, and it may not cover your facts.
Where this is not settled
- The supplied guidance does not define the level of harm needed for ‘serious prejudice’ in every situation.
- The supplied guidance does not explain what changes a tribunal may make to a proposed notice.
- The underlying statutory text and its current status should be checked before relying on this page for a live case.
Evidence you would need
This kind of case is decided on the facts of the individual property. These are the records that usually settle it, and the ones an adviser would ask you for.
- The proposed notice and the information or documents it requests.
- Why the WRA says it cannot get the material elsewhere.
- The facts said to show a possible failure to follow tax law.
- The facts said to show serious risk to assessing or collecting tax.
Explore this with an AI
Readers often want to test their own situation. Copy the prompt below into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It hands the model the actual legislation for this page rather than letting it answer from memory, and tells it to be explicit about what is uncertain. What comes back is information, not advice – check it against the links above.
I am researching Land Transaction Tax (LTT), the tax on property in Wales. It replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in Wales on 1 April 2018, and SDLT does not apply in Wales. MY QUESTION Land Transaction Tax: notices about unknown people [Replace this with your own situation: what you are buying, the price, the dates, who the buyer is, and what you plan to do with the property.] Guidance page from the Welsh Revenue Authority on this topic (guidance, not law): https://www.gov.wales/tax-collection-and-management-wales-act-2016-investigative-powers-technical-guidance#6689 HOW I WANT YOU TO ANSWER 1. Work from the legislation above. Read it before answering. Guidance from the Welsh Revenue Authority is its view of the law, not the law, and does not bind a tribunal or a court. 2. Tell me what the rule actually requires, in plain English. 3. Tell me which facts decide the answer, and which facts would change it. 4. Tell me what evidence I would need to support the position. 5. Be explicit about anything unsettled or fact-sensitive. Do not guess. 6. Your training data has a cutoff and SDLT rates and reliefs change at fiscal events. Say so if you are not sure the law is current. POINTS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE UNCERTAIN ON THIS TOPIC - The supplied guidance does not define the level of harm needed for 'serious prejudice' in every situation. - The supplied guidance does not explain what changes a tribunal may make to a proposed notice. - The underlying statutory text and its current status should be checked before relying on this page for a live case. Do not give me a conclusion you cannot support from the provisions above.
Legislation links show the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 as it stood on 2025-11-17. The law may have changed since, and the rules that apply are those in force on the date of your transaction. The official guidance this page is based on is here.
This page was last updated on 4 September 2026
Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Land Transaction Tax: notices about unknown people
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