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Britain's biggest bank helped wealthy clients cheat the UK out of millions of pounds in tax, the BBC has learned.
Panorama has seen thousands of accounts from HSBC's private bank in Switzerland leaked by a whistleblower in 2007. They show bankers helped clients evade tax and offered deals to help tax dodgers stay ahead of the law. HSBC admitted that some individuals took advantage of bank secrecy to hold undeclared accounts. But it said it has now "fundamentally changed". The documents, stolen in 2007 by computer expert Herve Falciani working for HSBC in Geneva, contain details of more than 100,000 clients from around the world. Offshore accounts are not illegal, but many people use them to hide cash from the tax authorities. And while tax avoidance is perfectly legal, deliberately hiding money to evade tax is not....Read more here
Australian Tax Office recoups more than $30m after receiving HSBC files Read more here
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Top officials at HM Revenue & Customs have been shouted down by MPs, angry at their lack of urgency in dealing with the HSBC tax dodging scandal. Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, accused Lin Homer, HMRC chief executive, of a "pathetic response".
Ms Homer denied she had failed to take firm action against UK citizens hiding money in HSBC accounts in Geneva. She said it was "absolutely not the case" she was failing the UK taxpayer.
Ms Homer, the chief executive of HMRC, explained why there had been only one prosecution of someone whose hidden accounts in Switzerland had been revealed. She said that most of the information leaked via the French authorities in 2010, which involved about 3,600 UK individuals, was incomplete or "dirty" data. Of these, 3,200 individuals had been traced and of the 1,100 most serious cases, which HMRC had chosen to pursue, only 130 were now outstanding.....Read more here
HSBC has published a full-page advert containing an apology in several newspapers, over claims that its Swiss private bank helped clients evade tax. The advert reproduces an open letter signed by chief executive Stuart Gulliver, which says recent coverage had been "a painful experience". Whistleblower Herve Falciani has said the UK government should have known about the scandal in 2010. The UK's Treasury Committee is to conduct an inquiry into the claims. And HM Revenue & Customs met the police and the Serious Fraud Office this week to expand the scope of its investigation into Swiss tax accounts held with HSBC. MPs have accused tax officials of failing to deal with the matter adequately. Mr Gulliver, whose letter is addressed to the bank's customers and staff, said in his letter that he wanted to reassure customers that its Swiss private bank had been "completely overhauled"....Read more here