HMRC campaign targets offshore account holders in clamp-down on tax evasion

25 February 2014

The days of hiding money in another country to cheat the UK are coming to an end as HMRC launch a fresh campaign on offshore tax evasion.

Chancellor George Osborne has launched a new campaign targeting taxpayers with money hidden in offshore accounts.

The UK has already entered into new information-sharing agreements with the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories which will provide HMRC with access to more data than ever before on offshore accounts held by UK taxpayers.

The UK, following an agreement reached last year with France, Germany, Italy and Spain, will also move quickly to implement the new global standard on a multilateral basis. So far 42 countries and jurisdictions have joined this initiative which will lead to the rapid embedding of the new global standard and the removal of hiding places for tax evaders as HMRC uses new information to clamp down on tax evasion.

Any taxpayer who has declared all of their income has nothing to fear, but anyone who fails to do so will have to pay the tax itself as well as penalties of up to twice that sum, and could face imprisonment. The new HMRC campaign will run in national newspapers and weekly magazines from Monday 24 February 2014.

Read the full press release from HMRC.

HMRC has also published an issue briefing on how they are tackling offshore tax evasion which explains how they are reducing the opportunities for offshore evasion, what they are doing to identify and catch evaders, and the tough consequences for those who evade their taxes.