John Cassidy examines the development of HMRC’s offshore initiatives, which are starting to show a significant return.
It is traditional for HMRC investigators to get excited when they realise that a case involves the use of an offshore account. The reason is simple; such investigations often yield more money. Rather than wait for such cases to be turned up through normal investigation work in 2007 HMRC decided to short cut the process and go for the offshore account first. Why had it not taken this obvious route before? The main reasons seem to be practical – a lack of resources and the sort of sweeping powers needed to make such a project work. However since 2007 HMRC’s offshore initiatives have become quite...
