Garry Bell

DETAILS of bank accounts in Jersey held by UK residents are to be passed to the UK tax authorities.

A UK tribunal has ordered over 300 banks to hand over details of customers with accounts offshore to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

The HMRC will not be entitled to come knocking on any doors in Jersey. However, the move is likely to concern people living in the UK who wish to keep their financial details confidential.

Jersey Finance say that the initiative ‘should not have a major impact on the finance industry’ and that in any event the Island ‘would never condone any client evading their tax responsibilities’.

The Tax Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal approved the HMRC application at the end of last week. It follows decisions last year which approved similar orders for the four largest banking groups.

Garry Bell, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that the move was  part of HMRC’s offshore project, which had been going on for a long time.