Tax avoidance and evasion: HSBC

What the inquiry looked at

“The Committee has previously taken evidence from HMRC on progress in acting on information from the Falciani list, which it received from the French in 2010, of 130,000 potential tax evaders using the Geneva branch of HSBC. HMRC identified from this list 3,600 potentially non-compliant UK taxpayers, it has recovered £135m and made one conviction. The Committee concluded in its Eighteenth Report of this session that HMRC’s action in this area "continues to be unacceptably slow, putting tax revenues at risk." The recent leaks of HSBC files in the media have raised questions regarding the role of the bank in facilitating tax avoidance and evasion and HMRC’s response. In evidence taken on 11 February, the Chair said "This is the first time in many of these leaks that we have seen in front of this Committee where there are really strong allegations not of egregious tax avoidance, but of tax evasion, and that is incredibly serious." HMRC have since confirmed that the French tax authority have lifted the international treaty conditions on the data, which meant HMRC could only use it for tax purposes, to allow HMRC to share it with law enforcement agencies and regulators for the purpose of pursuing wider offences. This evidence session will allow the Committee to further examine HMRC’s response to the Falciani list and what HMRC expect now they can share the list more widely. The Committee will also question senior executives at the bank for the first time about HSBC’s involvement in tax avoidance and evasion, those responsible, and how the bank has dealt with these activities across the Group. Further information PAC inquiry: Tax wrap-up: a stocktake on progress since 2010”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

How the inquiry ran

Evidence

Oral evidence sessions 2