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Summer 2006 Newsletter


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

Casting The Net


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.