7 June 2011

According to a report in the Sunday Times, HMRC have now identified 3,000 UK-resident customers of HSBC in Switzerland as posing a “serious risk” in terms of tax avoidance. Letters have been sent to the first 750 of these individuals; the remaining 2,250 will be hearing from the taxman shortly.

The customer details have come from a list of 79,000 names handed to the French authorities by a former HSBC employee that was then passed on to tax authorities in a number of other countries. According to the Sunday Times, HMRC now has a list of 500,000 UK residents with offshore accounts that it has compiled from a variety of data sources.

Those who have already heard from HMRC need to obtain appropriate professional representation as quickly as possible to stand the best chance of mitigating penalties. Those who are waiting to hear (not just HSBC customers) should take advice now about pre-empting HMRC by making a voluntary disclosure and as to whether they might qualify for the very favourable terms of the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility.

For more details of our Tax Investigations, Disclosures and Enquiries service click here .

For more information please contact Mark Giddens or Derek Levy.