HMRC has begun an advertising campaign as part of its effort to bring an end to “hiding money in another country”.
It believes as much as £565 million in tax could be due to it on money held in other countries.
From January 2017 more than 90 jurisdictions, including Portugal, Spain and France, will start sharing financial details of British residents, including bank accounts and balances, savings interest, property and trusts.
Although the start date is January 2017, the information provided will be back dated to January 2016.
HMRC will be able to use this date to impose criminal sanctions and penalties on anyone who has failed to pay tax.
Harsher penalties and punishments are being introduced in the New Year for anyone who fails to declare offshore tax.
Adverts in British national newspapers will list the countries which will be sharing the data and advise people with undeclared offshore wealth to “come to us before we come to you”.
Holiday home owners and people who inherit overseas bank accounts, and don’t declare the interest or dividend earnings, are among those who are could be spotted by the ending of a disclosure facility on December 31.
The "Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility" will end in 2016. HMRC then will be able to impose penalties of at least 30% of the tax due, up from no minimum penalty, and can look back 20 years rather than 16.
Undeclared tax liabilities related to offshore income or capital gains will automatically be considered a criminal offence under new rules due to be introduced next year. Before only “deliberate” non-disclosures were deemed a criminal act.
Comments
HMRC in the UK is run by, and subject to constant staff cuts imposed by, a right wing government - which supports cutting deals with big business (rather than expecting big business to properly comply with tax law). A change of government will be necessary before the situation improves.
Still, it's good news that HMRC is chasing folk who are deliberately trying to avoid UK tax by hiding money in another country, is it not?
Like many others, I am keen for HMRC to begin to charge tax on many companies which make profits in Britain, and pay derisory rates of tax on those profits. Companies with such sweetheart deals include Vodafone, Starbucks, Amazon etc etc Such a move would be both profitable and easy to implement.