.png)
.png)
HMRC say they are ‘delighted’ with the progress of their Liechtenstein disclosure facility (LDF), which raised a little over £140 million in its first 19 months. The department is hopeful that the scheme will continue to bring in additional revenue for the public purse.
Between its launch on 1 September 2009 and 31 March 2011, the LDF received £140.08 million from taxpayers registered with the initiative – whose numbers increased by 65% to 1,351 in the six months between 30 September 2010 and the end of March this year, according to newly released official figures.
The LDF, which will run until 31 March 2015, is intended to encouraging UK residents with investments in Liechtenstein to clear their tax arrears. The programme caps penalties on unpaid tax at 10% of that evaded over the most recent ten years, provided the taxpayer discloses full details of his or her financial arrangements.
‘We are delighted with the way the LDF is performing, said a Revenue spokesperson. ‘It is bringing in significant amounts of tax that might otherwise be lost to the country. The facility runs until 2014/15, and our experience is that many of those with disclosures to make leave it until the last minute.’
HMRC hope to raise a total of £1 billion over the LDF's five-year lifespan: an estimate the department has called 'safe and cautious', but one that Barker Tilly tax partner George Bull in November claimed was over-ambitious and twice the size of what will in fact be generated by the facility.
