Offshore bank accounts to be investigated

Recently we posted that HMRC were intending to clamp down on taxpayers with offshore bank accounts who don’t declare the foreign interest received to the UK tax authorities.

Well, now its happened. The Taxman has received authority to access hundreds of thousands of Barclays bank account details. That’s more accounts at this one bank than the total number of people in the UK who declare any foreign income!

The Taxman estimates he will get an extra £1.5bn of tax from this little fishing trip. So, are we a nation of tax evaders? Only time will tell but expect HMRC to also attack all the other major banks in the near future.