Nowhere to hide

THE RECENT FLURRY of articles in the national press referring to a clampdown on offshore bank accounts and credit and debit cards linked to offshore bank accounts held by individuals resident in the UK for tax purposes will not have gone unnoticed by readers of Taxation. One of the articles suggested that 'The Inland Revenue is gearing up for a massive crackdown on offshore tax evaders that could lead to a tenfold increase in recoveries to £300 million this year'. What is the substance to these statements?
Readers involved in tax compliance will appreciate that entries in a client's tax return relating to offshore income or gains particularly new entries are likely to score very highly when the return is risk assessed for enquiry. Perhaps more worrying is the fact that HMRC investigators appear to believe that there are tens of thousands of UK taxpayers...