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HMRC have received the equivalent of £342m as part of the tax agreement between the UK and Switzerland, which came into force at the beginning of this month.
The payment of 500m Swiss francs is the first instalment of a levy on bank accounts held in the alpine country by UK taxpayers, to cover arrears on undeclared earnings.
Current and future tax liabilities will be satisfied by new charges – 48% on interest and income, 40% on dividends and 27% on capital gains – as part of an accord aimed at combating evasion by wealthy Britons and expected to raise about £5bn over the next five years.
Relevant accounts will also be subject to a one-off deduction of between 21% and 41%, as long they were open on 31 December 2010 and are still active on 31 May 2013.
None of the charges will be levied on an individual who instructs his or her bank to share account details with the Revenue, which will then seek unpaid taxes with interest and penalties.
The anti-evasion arrangement with Switzerland was confirmed in October 2011, when the taxman hailed it as “historic”. It overcame the final obstacle of its implementation a year later, after Swiss activists failed to garner enough support for a referendum on the deal that their country had also made with Germany and Austria.
Exchequer minister David Gauke said, “Offshore evasion costs the UK billions of pounds every year, and we are determined to tackle it. One of the ways is through information exchange, and this agreement makes it easier for HMRC to obtain information about taxpayers suspected of hiding money.”
