New agreement signed to clamp down on tax evasion

Some 51 countries, including the UK, have signed a new agreement at the Global Forum in Berlin to automatically exchange tax information, in an attempt to clamp down on tax evasion.

Under the agreement, “unprecedented levels” of information, including account balances, interest payments and beneficial ownership, will be shared with the UK from countries across the world in an international move to lessen the extent of tax evasion.

The government said the new standards, developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, will increase HM Revenue and Customs’s ability to restrict tax evaders, providing the it with the details of “billions of pounds of assets held overseas by UK taxpayers”.

The agreement’s signatories include all G5 countries, although the United States has not signed.

The OECD said early adopters who signed the agreement have pledged to work towards launching their first information exchanges by September 2017. Others are expected to follow in 2018.

Chancellor George Osborne said the deal sends a “clear message to those who still think they can escape making a fair contribution to our public services and to reducing our deficit: you can hide no more; we are coming to get you”.

He added: “It was three years ago when, with my German colleague Wolfgang Schäuble, I launched a campaign for a new international deal to catch people who evade their taxes by hiding their money overseas.

“I never expected that within such a relatively short period we would succeed in getting 51 countries to sign up to this agreement.”