The UK Treasury has put forward proposals to impose stiff fines on offshore tax evaders.
The proposed new rules, announced on Wednesday, could fine evaders as much as 200% of the amounts of tax owed for any person or corporation who fail to declare before September 2018.
“For too long it has been too easy for people to hide their money overseas to evade tax. We are changing that,” said Jane Ellison, financial secretary to the Treasury.
Anyone owing UK tax will be fined somewhere between 100% and 200% of the undeclared tax. The fines are greater than the existing ones, which can be further reduced for those who have made careless errors rather than being deliberately deceitful.
HMRC may also be able look at tax statements going back as far as 20 years, if it is believed that tax evasion was deliberate.
Tax dodgers also run the risk of being named and shamed if they deliberately withhold information from HM Revenue & Customs.
The proposal is likely to be introduced as part of the government’s 2017 finance bill.
The Treasury said tax inspectors will soon acquire access to information on assets held offshore. Next year the “common reporting standard” begins. This agreement, which initially involves 54 countries later growing to 100, provides for the sharing of information on bank accounts of individuals, companies, trusts and foundations.
Included in this number are some traditional tax havens, such as the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Isle of Man as well as Jersey and Guernsey.
By 2018, Switzerland, the Bahamas, Panama and Singapore will start sharing information.
