Maritime International Advisor

BRITISH BANKS FORCED TO HAND OVER OFFSHORE ACCOUNT INFORMATION

May 2006 - The UK Revenue & Customs has just won a "landmark" victory which will allow it to access the computer banking records of British banks holding offshore banking records in mainland Britain.

It is not known how many British banks, situated on offshore jurisdictions such as the Channel Islands and the Dependent Territories, hold their offshore records on computers in mainland Britain, but Revenue & Customs expects to identify GBP 1.5 billion in unpaid taxes from a review of Barclays records alone.

The ruling has just been obtained against Barclays, but it is expected to be applied shortly against all British banks with offshore computer records held in mainland Britain. Revenue & Customs will examine these records, looking for customers with UK addresses who have not filed tax returns, or have not paid tax on gains in the accounts.

Already this year, Inland Revenue had received the go-ahead to obtain customers' credit card details from British banks.

The move by UK Revenue & Customs has completely removed any semblance of British banking confidentiality, already hard hit by the EU Savings Directive.

Revenue has estimated that they are losing GBP 1.5 billion of unpaid tax and need these powers to collect it. Revenue recently obtained Barclays credit card records and estimated that only about 19% of those with UK addresses had filed tax returns.

Stay tuned for further developments on these issues.

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