Disclosures in the tax ‘amnesty’ - a success?

The tax ‘amnesty’ for those who had an offshore bank account and had not previously declared it does not seem to have been as successful as HMRC had hoped. Just before the deadline for registering a disclosure on 22 June 2007, HMRC’s Director General Dave Hartnett said “I’m expecting a last minute rush”.

HMRC are reported to have obtained 400,000 account details from the banks that were targeted. Far fewer people asked for the offshore disclosure packs and even fewer seem to have made a disclosure.

However, it appears that HMRC will not be limited in their search for offshore bank accounts to the five large banks that were initially required to provide information. HMRC are intending to target another 550 banks in the UK.

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