Warning for offshore tax dodgers in HMRC podcast

Anyone with undeclared offshore tax liabilities who fails to come forward under the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO) faces an increased risk of prosecution, HMRC's Permanent Secretary for Tax, Dave Hartnett, warns in a new podcast launched today.

Under the NDO, people making a complete and accurate disclosure of their untaxed offshore liabilities between 1 September and 12 March 2010 will have any penalty capped at 10 per cent, or 20 per cent if they failed to take up a written offer of a capped penalty under HMRC's 2007 Offshore Disclosure Facility (ODF).

In the podcast, Dave Hartnett makes it absolutely clear that penalties will be "much higher than 10 or 20 per cent" for those who don't come forward, and stresses that "there will not be another chance" to do so.

"This time," he warns, "we are going to have information from the majority of banks operating in the United Kingdom. So, we're going to have a much bigger database from which to work."

The podcast is available to listen to or download for free from the HMRC website at hmrc.gov.uk/podcasts.