What about the additional 90,000 offshore accounts undeclared?
While the UK government has enjoyed something of a success with the recent announcement that 10,000 UK citizens holding money offshore have now declared these previously unknown assets this is not the end of the story. It is believed that an additional 90,000 UK citizens have not taken the opportunity to declare their overseas assets and their overseas income and the UK government will now need to sift through massive lists received from the likes of Luxembourg and other so-called "tax havens".
It was always known that the UK government had access to a list of overseas accounts held by UK citizens but the cheapest, quickest and most efficient way to resolve the issue was to give taxpayers the chance to step forward themselves. However, now that many have ignored this opportunity the UK government is slowly but surely working through these lists and many in the UK will indeed receive a letter outlining their specific circumstances in due course.
When you consider the 10,000 people who came forward will have to pay around £500 million in overdue taxes and interest to the Treasury, the amount still waiting to be collected by the Treasury must be enormous - potentially £4 billion!
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