Near-shore havens?
Have you ever held a bank account, or other investment, in Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man? Back in the day, the main UK banks offered accounts in their ‘near-shore’ island branches as means to pay interest to UK residents without having to deduct tax.
Under international pressure to stamp out tax avoidance and evasion, those island nations have agreed to automatically provide HMRC with details of all bank accounts and investments held by UK residents since 1999. Anyone who’s held an account in those jurisdictions may receive a letter from their bank or contact about this new disclosure arrangement.
Having an offshore account doesn’t mean anything is wrong, but any income should have been put on UK tax returns. If you are unsure whether you correctly declared everything, please discuss the matter with us. The taxman is encouraging people to declare their ‘near-shore’ financial interests and pay any tax due before 30 September 2013. The conditions relating to penalties and interest on unpaid tax are slightly different for each island, so care is required.
Any tax due in respect of these investments must be paid up front, and we can help calculate this. However, once the tax has been paid, taxpayers are required to make a detailed disclosure of their entire tax affairs, so we would need to review all their tax returns back to 1999.
