The Government has launched a new campaign in order to retrieve millions of pounds of tax from people who own offshore accounts.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced the new ‘offshore disclosure opportunity’ in Wednesday’s annual Budget

The scheme will run until March next year and is aimed to give people a chance to confess that they owe tax on their offshore bank account interest.

The HMRC ran this campaign back in 2007, targeting people with offshore accounts in the UK’s high street bank branches and were able to raise around £450 million from 45,000 people because of it.

Last year they ran a second campaign which targeted around 300 smaller banks and building societies that also have offshore branches.

The searches by the Revenue were not possible until a recent legal breakthrough that now means that banks must reveal the names of any UK citizens that hold accounts abroad. And since this change was made they have been working hard to make sure all those tax dodgers with overseas accounts are brought to a stop.

New Powers A Result of the G20 Summit?

They have also been in the process of investigating around about 300 rich UK citizens who have failed to pay tax on their Liechtenstein bank accounts. It is estimated that they owe around £300 million in tax on these accounts that have around £1 billion in them.

The HMRC have also recently signed agreements with the British Isles such as Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands in order to achieve the same effects on people keeping accounts in these places.

From the accountants Saffery Chanpness, Ronnie Ludwig has said: “This is in line with the coordinated international approach being taken towards such bank accounts as outlined at the recent G20 summit meeting.

“The knowledge that they are much more likely to be caught than was ever the case before should provoke some more meaningful results from the latest disclosure opportunity.”

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