£40bn held in Swiss bank accounts by UK taxpayers....

C_Mababejive

I dunno...succesive Government both home and abroad have connived to allow this situation continue for decades post war and yet let a totterer bring a little bit of brass or copper into the scrapyard and suddenly,he is the scourge of society for doing a bit of recycling. I have yet to do some serious reading on the subject but I seem to recall suggestions that the vaults of Swiss banks are home to many dodgier items than pictures of HM Queen cut into squares..

EG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Jewish_Congress_lawsuit_against_Swiss_banks

antrobus

ILW wrote: »

What sort of interest do these accounts pay?

The BBC is confusing matters by referring to "Swiss bank accounts". It would be more accurate to state that it is believed that Swiss banks hold £40 billion worth of assets on behalf of UK taxpayers, who (quite probably) have neglected to inform HMRC of this state of affairs. It is likely that only a small proportion of that £40 billion is held in the form of actual cash - a lot of Swiss private banks don't 'do cash' anyway, it's all asset management.

antrobus

C_Mababejive wrote: »

I dunno...succesive Government both home and abroad have connived to allow this situation continue for decades post war and...

Apart from the current Government who appear to be (trying) to do something about it.

kabayiri

antrobus wrote: »

Apart from the current Government who appear to be (trying) to do something about it.

Signs of a cash strapped government looking for income wherever it might find it perhaps ?

GeorgeHowell

kabayiri wrote: »

Signs of a cash strapped government looking for income wherever it might find it perhaps ?

It's a pity that it's taken a financial crisis for attention to be given to it. But then what did Labour do in 13 years ? Nothing, because they didn't think they needed the hassle. Such was their lack of grip and understanding of the economy and public finances that they thought we were doing well.

Moby

antrobus wrote: »

Apart from the current Government who appear to be (trying) to do something about it.

They are paying lip service to it to distract from their inadequacy!

kabayiri

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

It's a pity that it's taken a financial crisis for attention to be given to it. But then what did Labour do in 13 years ? Nothing, because they didn't think they needed the hassle. Such was their lack of grip and understanding of the economy and public finances that they thought we were doing well.

I think the last government didn't worry about a lot of things, including this.

Why worry about record PFI use, the next lot will pick up the tab. Grow the public sector by 1m; let the next generation pick up the generous pension bills resulting.

I suggest that they didn't care about these outflows of money. Until it becomes an issue now...

Mrs_Bones

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

It's a pity that it's taken a financial crisis for attention to be given to it. But then what did Labour do in 13 years ? Nothing, because they didn't think they needed the hassle. Such was their lack of grip and understanding of the economy and public finances that they thought we were doing well.

None of that is untrue but it only works as an attack at the Labour party if you think the Conservatives would have done any different about it if they had been in power for the last 13 years. Personally I think we'd be in the exact same situation. Given the relatively prosperous years during Labour administration, there is no way the Conservatives would have even looked at tackling the wealthy either on illegally hidden tax or anything else.

GeorgeHowell

Mrs_Bones wrote: »

None of that is untrue but it only works as an attack at the Labour party if you think the Conservatives would have done any different about it if they had been in power for the last 13 years. Personally I think we'd be in the exact same situation. Given the relatively prosperous years during Labour administration, there is no way the Conservatives would have even looked at tackling the wealthy either on illegally hidden tax or anything else.

That's probably true. But doesn't Labour essentially stand on a ticket of supporting the interests of ordinary people rather than the rich and the powerful ? Rather ironic that a Tory led government is addressing it, as a result of trying to sort out a mess created under Labour.

Generali

BertieUK wrote: »

I can at least sleep at night as up to now I have not had the luxury of Swiss Banking, but maybe some could get worried if they have earned but not declared their assets.

There are many reasons to keep assets offshore. The hedge fund I used to run the ops side of kept the assets offshore but the management of the assets onshore.

There was no tax gain to be made it was just easier and cheaper to do it that way. We had nothing to hide but the Government would have wanted us to spend thousands proving that. It was better for us just to get around the problem entirely. As a very small fund we used to spend about £50,000 on UK compliance costs and perhaps £1,000 (max) on offshore compliance costs plus audit costs.

Those that use offshore tax-havens to avoid tax have good reason to be worried because the US Government is gunning for them and the IRS will rain on your parade for fun from what I've seen. Countries like the UK and Germany will piggy back off the power of the US.