According to the Financial Times (28 April 2014), George Osborne ratcheted up the pressure on offshore tax evaders as he promised ‘tough action domestically’ and a pioneering global agreement on transparency.
HMRC is writing to 2,000 taxpayers with overseas bank accounts, ahead of the agreement on automatic information exchange to be signed in October, under a deal struck on Monday by the finance ministers of Europe’s largest countries.
Mr Osborne said: ‘The government is on the side of the hardworking majority who pay the taxes they owe on time, but there remains a minority that think they don’t have to play by the rules. For those evading their responsibilities and hiding their money offshore the message is clear; time is running out. If you have something to disclose, come to us before we come to you.’
As well as the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, 44 other countries plan to sign the new global standard, which will require them to automatically exchange information in 2017 with respect to data collected from 31 December 2015.
The letters to taxpayers, which will urge them to come forward if they have undeclared income, are an attempt to test and refine HMRC’s risk assessment capability, in preparation for the transfer of vast amounts of taxpayer information.
The 2,000 letters are the result of a sampling exercise using HMRC’s ‘connect’ system which assesses potential evasion and avoidance.
According to the Financial Times (28 April 2014), George Osborne ratcheted up the pressure on offshore tax evaders as he promised ‘tough action domestically’ and a pioneering global agreement on transparency.
HMRC is writing to 2,000 taxpayers with overseas bank accounts, ahead of the agreement on automatic information exchange to be signed in October, under a deal struck on Monday by the finance ministers of Europe’s largest countries.
Mr Osborne said: ‘The government is on the side of the hardworking majority who pay the taxes they owe on time, but there remains a minority that think they don’t have to play by the rules. For those evading their responsibilities and hiding their money offshore the message is clear; time is running out. If you have something to disclose, come to us before we come to you.’
As well as the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, 44 other countries plan to sign the new global standard, which will require them to automatically exchange information in 2017 with respect to data collected from 31 December 2015.
The letters to taxpayers, which will urge them to come forward if they have undeclared income, are an attempt to test and refine HMRC’s risk assessment capability, in preparation for the transfer of vast amounts of taxpayer information.
The 2,000 letters are the result of a sampling exercise using HMRC’s ‘connect’ system which assesses potential evasion and avoidance.
