The government is giving offshore tax evaders one last chance to “come clean” and get their tax affairs in order, according to a fresh campaign launched by David Gauke.
Mr Gauke, the financial secretary to the Treasury, today (27 November) unveiled an initiative warning offshore tax evaders that HM Revenue & Customs will start to receive details on UK taxpayers from more than 90 countries.
This automatic exchange of information between jurisdictions will come under new global agreements rigorously supported by the UK.
From 2016, the existing disclosure facilities will be replaced by a new tougher, “last chance” facility.
Taxpayers now have less than a month to use the current facilities to pay the tax they owe.
Next year, tougher financial and criminal sanctions will be introduced in a bid to deter tax evasion.
Mr Gauke said: “Hiding money in another country at the expense of honest UK taxpayers is not acceptable and we have made it clear we will put a stop to it.
“Under our new regime the small minority who evade tax offshore, facilitate or turn a blind eye to offshore tax evasion will face tougher sanctions.”
HMRC already analyses a large amount of data through various systems such as Connect, which help pinpoint people who are exploiting offshore structures to evade tax in the UK.
From next year, the tax office will start receiving data on UK customers with offshore accounts and trusts from crown dependencies.
In 2017, more than 90 other jurisdictions will partake in the exchange of information.
In this year’s Budget, the government announced a number of measures aimed at tackling offshore evasion in a bid to bring in £565m for UK taxpayers.
In Wednesday’s (25 November) Autumn Statement, Osborne promised a further £800m will be spent in a bid to fight against tax evasion.
katherine.denham@ft.com
