Offshore savers’ tax amnesty ends 4th January

by Gill Montia

Story link: Offshore savers’ tax amnesty ends 4th January

Offshore account holders are reminded that a “Disclosure Opportunity” for unpaid tax on interest expires at midnight on Monday 4th January 2010.

The original deadline of 30th November was extended by HM Revenue & Customs to give banks additional time to contact customers with offshore accounts.

Savers who come clean are liable to a fine of 10% of any unpaid tax, in addition to settlement of the tax due.

Once the amnesty ends, HMRC will revert to imposing fines of up to 100% of tax evaded, although in his December pre-Budget report the Chancellor of the Exchequer laid out plans to raise the maximum penalty to 200%.

Alistair Darling also confirmed that since April, HMRC has asked for details of at least 100,000 offshore accounts held at over 300 financial institutions.

For those making a disclosure on paper, HMRC expects to receive any unpaid tax by 31st January 2010, and for those revealing all online, the deadline is 12th March.

The first such amnesty took place in 2007, when £450 million was raised by targeting offshore accounts provided by banks with UK operations.

Around 45,000 people paid their dues but the outcome was generally thought to have been disappointing.

The largest single payment under the scheme was £3 million and the average, £9,000.