Four UK high street banks will be forced to hand over details of their clients’ offshore bank accounts after HM Revenue & Customs, the UK’s ...

Four UK high street banks will be forced to hand over details of their clients’ offshore bank accounts after HM Revenue & Customs, the UK’s tax authority won another legal victory in its battle against offshore tax evasion, according to a report in the Financial Times. The report names the banks as HSBC, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB and says that around 100,000 customers will be affected by the disclosures which are expected to yield £275 million in unpaid tax. Although tax officials can now search records for information on UK-domiciled individuals who have not declared income offshore centres such as the Channel Islands, the ruling is thought unlikely to extend to Switzerland and some other offshore jurisdictions. HMRC will encourage individuals with undeclared offshore accounts to come forward by offering reduced penalties of 10 per cent of the maximum for a limited period. Investors would still face a bill for up to 20 years of unpaid tax and interest, though. Barclays was the subject of a similar ruling in April last year which the authorities believed could yield £1.5 billion on unpaid tax.