Accountants, bankers, lawyers and other advisors who enable
offshore tax evasion will face tough new sanctions from 1 January
2017.
The new powers will see individuals or corporates who take
deliberate action to help others evade paying tax facing fines of
up to 100% of the tax they helped evade or £3000, whichever is
highest. On top of this the taxman will also be able to publicly
name the enabler.
While tax evasion has always been illegal, this law will mean
HMRC can, for the first time, charge civil penalties on the
facilitators of the tax evasion who provide planning, advice or
other professional services or physically move funds offshore.
The UK is one of the first countries in the world to introduce
this power, which was originally announced at Budget 2015 and
legislated for in the Finace Bill 2016.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said:
Tax evasion is a crime and as a government we have led reform of
the international tax system to root it out.
Closer to home we are creating a tax system where taxes are fair,
competitive and paid.
The raft of measures we have introduced to tackle avoidance and
evasion will create a level playing field for the vast majority
of people and businesses who play fair and pay what is due.
This year will also see the government introduce a new corporate
criminal offence of failing to prevent the facilitation of tax
evasion. Under the new rule currently being legislated for,
companies will be held liable if an individual acting on its
behalf as an employee or contractor facilitates tax evasion.
Previously there needed to be proof that the board of directors
were aware and involved in facilitating the evasion.
This is alongside introducing a new requirement to correct past
tax evasion, which will see anyone who has failed to correct past
evaded taxes by 30 September 2018 hit with tough new penalties,
and consulting on a new requirement for businesses and
individuals who create complex offshore financial arrangements
that bear the hallmarks of enabling tax evasion to notify them to
HMRC.
Since 2010 HMRC has secured over £130 billion in additional
compliance revenues as a result of actions to tackle tax evasion,
tax avoidance, and non-compliance. It has also secured more than
£2.5 billion specifically from offshore tax evaders.
