Banking Leak Aids Tax Evasion Crackdown

Banking Leak Aids Tax Evasion Crackdown.

A leak by a former employee of HSBC has led to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to continue its pursuit of tax evaders who were named on a list of HSBC’s Swiss private banking area. So far HMRC has managed to recover £135m from 24,000 clients named on the list.

The list which consisted of information on 6,000 individuals, companies, trusts and other bodies which had or still hold accounts with HSBC Geneva. The list was handed to HMRC last year by French authorities under a tax treaty, it was originally obtained by an angry HSBC employee who wished to expose tax evaders and handed it over to the French authorities.

French authorities identified 8,000 French residents who have an account with the Swiss bank. The leak was a huge shock to the banking sector valued by many wealthy people for its banking secrecy.

Britain has now got enough data to pursue up to 3,800 taxpayers and added that 13 investigations were currently ongoing.