タックス・ヘイブン：イギリスが海外匿名口座への罰金を2倍に
ただし個人口座のみ。法人口座については罰せられない。
Tougher penalties target offshore accounts
By Vanessa Houlder
Published: March 25 2010 02:00 | Last updated: March 25 2010 02:00
Investors who hide money in highly secretive tax havens face penalties of up to 200 per cent if they are found out, the Treasury said yesterday in its latest attempt to flush out money hidden offshore.
The move is likely to further boost the uptake of a ground-breaking agreement signed with Liechtenstein last year, which Alistair Darling said yesterday was expected to bring in ￡940m over its lifetime.
The Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility allows most individuals with undisclosed offshore assets to move their money to Liechtenstein and take advantage of relatively lenient penalties if they come forward. The facility, which allows individuals to pay penalties of just 10 per cent and declare unpaid tax going back just 10 years, runs until March 2015.
Penalties for offshore evasion will be doubled if they involve jurisdictions that do not exchange tax information with Britain.
They will be one-and-a-half times as big in cases of evasion involving most offshore centres and many other jurisdictions which typically exchange information on request, but not automatically.
The ratcheting-up of penalties is the latest step in efforts by HM Revenue & Customs to expose investors with undeclared offshore accounts. It has won legal notices forcing banks to divulge information about account holders but many jurisdictions remain outside its reach.
A dwindling number of offshore centres now refuse to exchange any information on request, after hundreds of agreements were signed in the past year in response to the G20 group of world leaders' offensive against tax havens.
Only Liberia, Nauru, Niue, Guatemala and the Philippines have no tax information exchange agreements, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Dominica, Grenada and Belize, which Mr Darling said were about to sign agreements with Britain, have just two or three agreements in total.
Numerous financial centres, however, including Switzerland and Jersey, do not exchange information automatically with Britain.
Jason Collins, partner at McGrigors, said Britain had automatic exchange agreements with only a few G20 countries, and no information exchange agreements at all with China, Brazil and South Korea, where under-declaring tax would incur the maximum penalty.
Mr Collins said there was "an obvious loophole" as the new penalties will not apply to corporation tax, which could cause a rush to set up offshore companies.
Tougher penalties target offshore accounts
By Vanessa Houlder
Published: March 25 2010 02:00 | Last updated: March 25 2010 02:00
Investors who hide money in highly secretive tax havens face penalties of up to 200 per cent if they are found out, the Treasury said yesterday in its latest attempt to flush out money hidden offshore.
The move is likely to further boost the uptake of a ground-breaking agreement signed with Liechtenstein last year, which Alistair Darling said yesterday was expected to bring in ￡940m over its lifetime.
The Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility allows most individuals with undisclosed offshore assets to move their money to Liechtenstein and take advantage of relatively lenient penalties if they come forward. The facility, which allows individuals to pay penalties of just 10 per cent and declare unpaid tax going back just 10 years, runs until March 2015.
Penalties for offshore evasion will be doubled if they involve jurisdictions that do not exchange tax information with Britain.
They will be one-and-a-half times as big in cases of evasion involving most offshore centres and many other jurisdictions which typically exchange information on request, but not automatically.
The ratcheting-up of penalties is the latest step in efforts by HM Revenue & Customs to expose investors with undeclared offshore accounts. It has won legal notices forcing banks to divulge information about account holders but many jurisdictions remain outside its reach.
A dwindling number of offshore centres now refuse to exchange any information on request, after hundreds of agreements were signed in the past year in response to the G20 group of world leaders' offensive against tax havens.
Only Liberia, Nauru, Niue, Guatemala and the Philippines have no tax information exchange agreements, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Dominica, Grenada and Belize, which Mr Darling said were about to sign agreements with Britain, have just two or three agreements in total.
Numerous financial centres, however, including Switzerland and Jersey, do not exchange information automatically with Britain.
Jason Collins, partner at McGrigors, said Britain had automatic exchange agreements with only a few G20 countries, and no information exchange agreements at all with China, Brazil and South Korea, where under-declaring tax would incur the maximum penalty.
Mr Collins said there was "an obvious loophole" as the new penalties will not apply to corporation tax, which could cause a rush to set up offshore companies.
この記事へのコメント