UK authorities target offshore bank accounts
HM Revenue and Customs, a department of the UK government, will today find out whether access will be granted to information regarding 500,000 UK citizens with overseas bank accounts through companies with operations in the UK. This comes only 24 hours after the completion of an agreement with the Liechtenstein authorities which will see tens of millions of pounds of unpaid taxes pour into the coffers of the UK government.
The UK government has been only a very determined and very tough programme of building bridges with various tax havens around the world, incentivising local governments and ultimately trying to gain access to overseas bank accounts held by UK citizens. The 300 foreign banks operating in the UK may well be forced to work with the UK government to ensure that any UK taxes on accounts held overseas are paid in accordance with the various tax regulations.
While there has been no mention of any potential repercussions should foreign banks refuse to hand over the information to the authorities, there are obvious penalties at the beck and call of the UK government. At a time when tax income has fallen to record lows in the UK it seems that the authorities are very keen to pull in unpaid taxes as soon as possible.
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