HMRC claws back £135m from leaked list of HSBC clients
HM Revenue & Customs has recovered £135m from 24,000 clients named on a list of HSBC’s Swiss private banking operation, which were revealed in a leak by a former employee.
Lin Homer, chief executive of HMRC, told a hearing at the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last night that just one person had so far been prosecuted from the least leaked by Herve Falciani who said he wanted to expose tax evasion.
The leak sent shockwaves through the world of Swiss banking, long valued by wealthy individuals for its stability and traditions of banking secrecy, and led to a French probe into HSBC to determine whether it had also helped French customers avoid taxes.
The amount recovered by the UK is substantially lower than the equivalent of £220m retrieved by Spain and £188m by France according to HMRC figures.
Britain had received strong enough data to pursue up to 3,800 taxpayers for payments – ideally through voluntary settlements rather than through costly prosecution, the tax authority said.
It added that 13 investigations were ongoing.
“We are very very interested – and determined – to shake some money out of these people, but I don’t think it’ll all be by prosecutions,” Homer told the hearing.
“So far we have a yield of £135m, but we are not finished.”
