Clients' response to the tax 'amnesty'?

Clients' response to the tax 'amnesty'?

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A recent report by the BBC Tax amnesty bid 'starts slowly', quotes Chris Oates, partner in tax risk management, at Ernst & Young as saying, "The numbers of people responding is much less than anticipated. The contacts I have across the major accountancy firms indicate that just a few hundred people have actually notified the Revenue that there is tax to pay."

HMR&C apparently report the response they have received as "steady" and say, "We are expecting a deluge in the final few days," as the 22 June deadline for notification approaches.

The number of UK residents with offshore bank accounts I have seen variously estimated at "tens of thousands" or "up to a million".

Since most account holders will have received a letter from their bank some time ago and those accountants who have decided to circularise their clients will (one would expect) have done so by now, I would think that most people who are going to contact their accountant about this will already have done it.

Has there been much response (or even any response) from your clients?

Are you expecting a deluge in the third week of June?

Should we expect HMR&C to mount an advertising campaign in a fortnight or so - perhaps along the lines of, "Paying tax, interest and a 10% penalty is really quite jolly!" featuring a grinning grey haired bloke on a yacht?

David Winch

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By User deleted
23rd May 2007 12:46

Funny you should ask!
Will Heard has just posed the same question:

Amnesty experiences so far

"In which Will Heard shares some of his experiences regarding the Offshore Disclosure Facility and invites readers to pool their experiences to get a better understanding of what HMRC is trying to achieve by this unprecedented disclosure arrangement."

I can see great minds think alike! I look forward to hearing about people's experiences.

Nichola Ross Martin
tax editor, accountingweb

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