HM Revenue and Customs
The new regime to crack down on offshore evaders, which HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will consult on from today, includes:
- a new criminal offence for offshore evasion so in the worst cases its no longer possible to plead ignorance in an attempt to avoid criminal prosecution
- a new criminal offence for corporates who fail to prevent tax evasion or the facilitation of tax evasion on their watch
- increasing the financial penalties faced by evaders including, for the first time, linking a penalty to the value of the asset hidden offshore
- new civil penalties on those who facilitate evasion so they will face the same penalty as the tax evader
- publicly naming both evaders and those who enable evasion
Speaking at HMRCs Stakeholder Conference in London, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said:
Times up for people who dont pay their fair share of tax by hiding their money offshore. People who evade tax, facilitate or turn a blind eye to tax evasion will now face powerful criminal and civil sanctions under our tough new regime.
Weve already seen over 90 countries across the world sign up to automatically exchange information on taxpayers. This, together with our new sanctions, will mean there is nowhere left to hide for offshore tax evaders.
In the last few years there has been huge progress in tackling offshore tax evasion. HMRC has already collected over 2 billion from previously undisclosed offshore income through agreements with Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Channel Islands. As announced in the March 2015 Budget, these offshore disclosure agreements will close early (31 December 2015) and be replaced by a tougher last chance facility ahead of the automatic exchange of tax information with over 90 countries, including tax havens, from 2017.
Click to read the consultation documents.