Chancellor George Osborne has pledged to lift the veil of secrecy of offshore accounts. International criminals and other tax evaders are using these advantage to dodge charges from the law.
The real owners of the said illegal accounts will now have a hard time hiding their true identity as an international deal has been made in sharing information regarding the issue. Law enforcers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain will get information regarding significant data that would aid in investigating the financial offense as per BT.
Osborne hailed the new breakthrough after attending the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington. Osborne said they are creating a hammer blow against people who illegally hide their tax in the dark corners of the financial system. He added that Britain will constantly work with their European partners for the automatic exchange of personal tax data. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development will also develop new rules for a more fair tax regulation on multinationals.
Osborne flaunted that since then countries have always followed their example. The Chancellor now wants Britain and its Europe counterparts to take the lead in creating transparencies which he sees to be beneficial to companies and citizens. Osborne also reiterated the importance of teamwork, saying no country can handle the issue of tax evasion not even Britain.
As reported by Politics Home, Osborne said that Britain will work with their major European partners to find out who really owns the secretive shell companies and trusts that have been used as conduits for evading tax, laundering money and benefitting from corruption.
According to The Guardian, the secretary general for the European co-operation and Development, Ángel Gurría, said that there should be no room for complacency when it comes to the issue of cracking down tax evaders.
These actions have been a follow up on the recent exposure on Panama's offshore accounts to which Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron have revealed the details of their private finances two weeks before the said issue.
