Content
Brave New World
Business Not Pleasure
Summertime Blues
All That Glitters...
Casting The Net
Trust Gordon?
It Ain't Over...
One In The Eye
Keep Your Nose Clean
Foreign Affairs
When Is A Car...
Don't Walk Away
Avoiding, The Issue
Brown Is Anti-PC
VAT's Up Doc?
Fuel's Gold
An Age-old Question?
That's Unfair!
Year In Year Out
How Hard To Try?
It's A Rip-Off!
Outlaws Win
Show Some Restraint
Not Our Problem
They Cannot Be Serious?
Merry-Go-Round
Pension Disappointments
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HMRC recently convinced a court that they should be allowed to demand details of foreign accounts held by a bank's customers. One of the Big Four clearing banks will have to open its books to the authorities, and similar demands may follow to the others. The Revenue managed to convince the court that it was very likely that many people with foreign bank accounts were not declaring their income and gains properly. They wanted to check back from the bank's records to see if the customers were declaring the income on those accounts, or could explain where the funds themselves had come from. It's a common misconception that "moving your money offshore" gets it out of the taxman's grasp. If you are British resident and domiciled, it's still completely taxable, wherever it is in the world. Offshore money is just harder for the Revenue to see, like cash being paid to the proverbial dodgy builder to evade VAT. It's suggested that the Revenue may have bitten off more than they can chew - or at least, they may get indigestion chewing it. There will be so much information for them to check, and many of the people concerned will have been declaring everything properly. But they are likely to find a few who have not, and they hope to make the exercise worthwhile. If you have money offshore, remember that it usually remains taxable. If you are not sure about the status of your accounts, we will be happy to discuss them with you. |
© Bayar Hughes & Co., 2010.