Brits probed over Swiss bank assets
THOUSANDS of HSBC customers with money in Swiss bank accounts are to be investigated by the taxman.
The details of 7,000 British clients have been obtained by HM Revenue & Customs, after a whistleblower leaked the data.
The accounts in question hold combined assets of about £13bn and could net HMRC millions of pounds in unpaid tax revenues.
It is understood that as many as 3,000 of the bank’s British clients have engaged in tax evasion.
The British customers’ details were found on a disk leaked to the French authorities, which is said to contain the names of 79,000 HSBC clients in 180 countries.
Herve Falciani, an IT expert who worked for HSBC in Geneva, leaked the data to French officials, who passed it onto the UK
Investigations in Belgium, Italy and several other countries have already been launched.
Governments worldwide are heaping pressure on tax havens to reveal the names of customers who have assets there.
Treasury minister David Gauke said: “The options for hiding money offshore to evade UK tax are narrowing all the time.
“I would strongly urge anyone who is at all concerned that they may not have been paying the right tax on their off shore investments to talk to HMRC.”
A spokesperson for HSBC said: “HSBC in no way condones tax evasion and in no way do we assist it.”