As HMRC sifts through its first tranche of automatically exchanged financial data under the UK Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (UK FATCA), Gary Gardner, tax investigations partner at Blick Rothenberg examines its impact
HMRC were handed the details of thousands of offshore accounts on 30 September as part of the first exchange of financial data under the so called UK Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (UK FATCA), involving the UK Crown Dependencies and overseas territories, including Jersey, Guernsey, the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar.
These details further strengthen HMRC’s position and ongoing efforts to tackle tax evasion and could lead to criminal investigations and in-depth civil investigations.
It is the first wave of the drive for transparency that is sweeping through offshore centres globally and will be followed next year by the first automatic exchange of offshore financial details under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
