CIOT welcomes offshore tax evasion offence threshold change

Tax advisers have welcomed the government’s decision to restrict the use of a new ‘strict liability’ offshore tax evasion criminal offence to situations where the amount of tax underpaid is £25 000 or more. Documents published today set out further details of the controversial new offence that removes the need to prove intent for the most serious cases of failing to declare offshore income and gains (making it a ‘strict liability’ offence).

Jon Preshaw chairman of the CIOT’s Management of Taxes Sub-Committee said: ‘We continue to have concerns over this new offence which risks criminalising careless mistakes. However today’s announcement that there will be a threshold of “not less than £25 000 of tax lost per tax year” reassures us that the government are serious about fulfilling their promise that the new offence will only be used in the most serious of cases. This increase in the...