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Fewer carrots, more sticks

The proposals to strengthen deterrents against offshore tax evasion

KEY POINTS

  • Various initiatives have been introduced with considerable success to tackle tax evasion such as the bilateral agreements and extra resources for HMRC.
  • Proposals have been made to strengthen civil deterrents including extending them to inheritance tax and to include inaccuracies in category one and two countries.
  • HMRC wish to introduce additional measures to catch taxpayers who move monies out of territories where information-sharing agreements are imminent.
  • The new criminal offence for failing to declare income from offshore assets would make it unnecessary for the courts to ascertain mens rea.

Tackling offshore tax evasion remains high on the political agenda and with a general election in 2015 the pace of change is unlikely to subside.

The policy document No Safe Havens setting out HMRC’s offshore evasion strategy was...

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