HMRC steps up efforts to uncover offshore accounts

Date: 13th August 2008

Accountants have warned that increased cooperation between worldwide tax authorities means that the UK's HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is now closing in on business owners with offshore bank accounts.

The experts from Grant Thornton said that the recent purchase of confidential details about bank accounts in Liechtenstein by UK and German tax authorities highlighted the increased focus on those who use offshore havens to avoid tax payments.

Gary Ashford, a tax investigations director at Grant Thornton, added that it was believed that HMRC was now launching a new probe into offshore account holders. This has involved sending out disclosure requests to 25 foreign banks asking for data about UK account holders.

As a result, the accountant suggested that anyone in the UK who currently held an offshore bank account is "likely to feel some heat from HMRC in the near future", regardless of whether they had been "acting rightly or wrongly".

"HMRC clearly see anything involving offshore arrangements as increasing your risk score. However, if an individual is aware of this they can then set about ensuring any offshore arrangements are fully tax compliant," Mr Ashford added.

He concluded by pointing out that many believed that HMRC would soon be introducing some new systems that allow those holding untaxed offshore assets "to disclose these to HMRC and pay any tax owed".