HM Revenue and Customs has begun a consultation aimed at introducing a new regime to crack down on offshore tax evaders, bringing in even tougher sanctions.
In a speech yesterday (16 July) at HMRC’s stakeholder conference in London, the financial secretary to the Treasury David Gauke announced the publication of four consultations on a number of new measures.
They invite views on increased sanctions for individual tax evaders, including the introduction of a penalty based on the value of the assets hidden offshore and naming company directors who hide their identities behind offshore companies.
The documents also suggest a new criminal offence applying to corporations who fail to prevent their agents from criminally facilitating tax evasion, new penalties for enablers, including a penalty based on the amount of tax they have helped someone to evade, and a new simple criminal offence to apply to individuals who hide their money offshore to evade tax.
He said: “It is our duty to tackle these practices, on behalf of the majority of honest individuals and businesses who pay what they owe. And these proposals will ensure that tax evasion is a high-risk activity that will result in serious consequences.”
Mr Gauke added that time is up for those who do not pay their fair share of tax by hiding their money offshore.
“We’ve already seen over 90 countries across the world sign up to automatically exchange information on taxpayers. This, together with our new sanctions, will mean there is nowhere left to hide for offshore tax evaders.”
In the last few years HMRC has collected over £2bn from previously undisclosed offshore income through agreements with Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Channel Islands.
As announced in the March Budget, these offshore disclosure agreements will close early (31 December 2015) and be replaced by a tougher last chance facility, ahead of the automatic exchange of tax information with over 90 countries, including tax havens, from 2017.
peter.walker@ft.com
