Private Bank Statments

by **Lambo** on Mon Jan 05, 2009 3:12 pm

Can the Revenue gain access to Ones Off Shore bank Statements, any help on this subject will be most appreciated.

by **pawncob** on Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:41 pm

It depends on what you mean by access.
HMRC get details of any interest paid on any bank account within the EU.
Once your account is flagged (in their Offshore Initiative) the will probably ask you for details of the account.
You must supply this information or suffer the penalties (severe).
Suggest you search site for comments on this matter.

by **maths** on Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:05 pm

HMRC would not typically receive automatically information about offshore bank accounts; if the account is within the EU it may be that information is provided to HMRC but this depends upon the location of the account (not all Member States provide such information).

It would be very difficult to refuse to supply such information if HMRC ask for it directly from the account holder whilst investigating the holder's tax affairs.

It may be that "accidentally" HMRC obtain offshore bank account information about an individual as was the case recently following the request for information from onshore banks with offshore operations.

by **Lambo** on Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:41 pm

I have been informed that the Revenue would have to go to court to obtain any Private Bank Statment and that they would have to show evidence to a Judge that One was avoiding paying Tax I have been advised never give private bank statments to the Revenue also they can not enforce penalties for no production of private documents, I am going to stand my ground and let them take me to court.

I have test cases where the courts have refused to allow the Revenue access to private back statments also the Revenue have to be very carful as they will be in Breach of The 1998 Human Rights Act Artical 8 Right To Respect For Private And Family Life.

Never give the Revenue anything they are not Legaly entitled to,

I appreciate any feedback on this subject.

by **Lambo** on Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:44 pm

By Access I mean get hold of Paper copies of Private Bank Statments for Off Shore bank accounts,

I am aware that the Revenue are currently harrassing Off Shore bank account holders to produce private bank statments,

by **robbob** on Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:27 pm

Hello Lambo

Is there any particular reason why the revenue are asking for these bank statements?
I would guess if they had evidence to the contrary (even if it may be incorrect info supplied by a bank) then it is reasonable to request the statements so that you can prove any entry on your self assessment is correct or that you did not need to submit a self assessment return.
Not sure how your human rights are being breached by having to provide some info to enable the tax office to make a few checks.
I would be pretty sure that you will not have any liabilities before going down this route as a 100% penalty could double the amount of any underpaid tax if this turns out to be the case.

by **Lambo** on Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:39 am

Hi Robbob,

Thanks for your reply, its more deeper than just wanting to have a look to see if there are any errors on my Tax return the Revenue know there are no errors, They are requesting all off shore bank statments for the past 6 Years the only reason they are able to give is that they need to see if my tax return is correct, as it is correct and they know this they do not have vllied reason to see private bank statments,they are also asking for a breakdown of every transaction going back 6 Years One would know this is an impossible task, the only reason they are requesting off shore bank statments is because of the Barclays Bank case back in 2005 which allowed the Revenue information off all bank customers, this information ammounted to names addresses and account ballance thats all they were granted, so the Revenue presume that if one has or had an off shore bank account they were up to no good and avoiding Tax, it does make me realise just how stupid the Revenue really are, any more help or info Robbob will be most appreciated, Thanks

by **robbob** on Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:26 pm

You could ask them to be more clear as to what checks they need to make, if there is no indication that anything is wrong and you have not used funds from this account to fund your business and it is clear than any increases in the overall balance can be funded from your available funds then it sounds like they should not need the statements.At most a copy of the annual interest statement or such like that proves the return figures are correct should be sufficient.

by **Lambo** on Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:33 pm

My off shore bank account pays no interest so there is no figure than needs imputting on my tax return, the Revenue say they want to see my private bank statments as they do not believe where the funds came from dispite me providing an explaination that it is cash I have paid tax on basicly my savings, I know the only reason they started this enquiry is because I held an off shore bank account no other reason, I feel I am being harrassed by them and I will not give them my private bank statments as they are not relevent to this enquiry.

by **robbob** on Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:56 pm

Hello Lambo

Can all transactions from business to your savings and then to your offshore account be fully traced back to specific business withdrawals, if you can provide some details to the taxman and he might be happy with this.
If you cannot then it seems reasonable that the taxman needs to look at these statements to ensure everything is ok.
If there is a meaningful amount in this account and you do not explain exactly how funds have arrived at then he is unlikley to be happy until he does see these statements so that he can satisfy himself that everything is ok.

You are not being harrased in my opinion unless the answer to his question is in the information you have already provided him.