Peter Vaines on Liechtenstein:the centre of the (tax) universe
Having regard to the amount of press coverage recently, you would have thought that Liechtenstein was the centre of the universe. I know it was quite a popular place to deposit money, but not all that popular; the column inches would indicate that most of the UK had secretly placed their savings there and hidden it from HMRC.
Well, to help all those people who have got concealed accounts in Liechtenstein, HMRC has published a long list of questions and answers (and another equally long list of FAQs for advisers) on the Liechtenstein disclosure facility. It is pretty much the same as ours. Come clean and you can pay the tax with only a 10% penalty—but the heavens will fall if you fail to do so and we find out. And we will surely find out because we know everything now (for a copy of the guidance see: www.hmrc.gov.uk/disclosure/liechtenstein-disclosure.htm).
The published questions and answers are sensible and helpful but they do not say very much
