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HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has emphasised it will hunt down those individuals and businesses who have still not declared unpaid tax, following the end of its nine week partial tax amnesty.
HMRCs "offshore disclosure facility" led to around 60,000 people choosing to declare unpaid tax on offshore bank accounts, some 50 per cent waiting until the last few days of the amnesty.
Those who came forward have until November 26th to pay the tax, any interest and fines of up to ten per cent.
However, HMRC believes around 40,000 people involved in offshore banking have still not paid the appropriate tax - and could now be in line to receive fines of up to 100 per cent.
An HMRC spokesman told the Times: "We will definitely take it into account that we have put forward a unique opportunity for people to come forward.
"When people have ignored the offshore disclosure facility, yes, we will factor that in calculating a penalty. We have gone out of our way to make it easy. People who think we will go away [now] are making a mistake."
Dave Hartnett, the HMRC director-general of business relations, told Taxation magazine that his investigation team was "raring to go" and their inquiries would be "intrusive and thorough".
However, Alan McCann, director of tax at accountancy and advisory firm DTE, said recently that many people may well have gone into financial denial because of the ruinous cost of opening up.
Mr McCann explained: "I have anecdotal, but compelling evidence that one individual realised there was a liability of £1.3 million and simply could not come to terms with having to pay it."
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