Over 300 banks in the UK and abroad have been told to hand over details of UK taxpayers who have offshore accounts.

The decision by the newly established First-tier Tax Tribunal will enable HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to identify thousands of people who are hiding untaxed money abroad in offshore bank accounts.

“Today we have successfully applied to get information on the offshore accounts and assets of customers of over 300 further banks,” said Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary for Tax at HMRC.

“I urge any of them who have unpaid tax liabilities connected to these accounts now or in the past to come forward and make a full disclosure during the NDO because we will use the information provided by the 300 banks to pursue those people who continue to flout the UK’s tax laws,” he said.

The announcement follows Tuesday’s landmark deal with Liechtenstein, which will see the secretive Alpine tax haven exchange information with the UK government to ensure that UK residents with accounts in the country pay the correct amount of tax. An estimated 5,000 Britons currently have between £2 and £3 billion stashed away in Liechtenstein bank accounts.

UK residents will be given a grace period during which they may hand over details of their accounts in exchange for penalties on unpaid tax being capped at 10% of the total tax evaded during the past 10 years. However, those who fail to confess by March 2015 will have their accounts in Liechtenstein closed down.

The deal with the tiny province, which is bordered by Austria and Switzerland, is part of a wider offensive on tax evasion set out in the G20 summit last April.

Hartnett continued: “Those who have been evading UK tax on assets held in Liechtenstein banks must now settle with us. There are no alternatives.

“To resolve this as quickly as possible we will cap penalties on unpaid tax for those coming forward to make a full disclosure.

“Those who make the mistake of ignoring the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility will have their accounts in Liechtenstein closed and face penalties of up to 100% when HMRC catches up with them. “

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 8:58 am and is filed under Banking, Savings, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.