Tax dodger ordered to pay £469,000

13 May 2013

A Berkshire property developer has been ordered to pay costs, after he failed to pay tax on money hidden in a foreign bank account. The man in question has already voluntarily paid just under £390,000 to HMRC before this, following a successful result from HMRC's unit that tracks offshore tax dodgers. 

In this case, the money had been hidden in a Swiss bank account and the property developer had simply transferred the money to a different account, in an attempt to avoid some £430,000 inheritance tax.  However, now he has had to pay more than this as a result of the penalty imposed.

There are ways of passing money down the family generations that can assist in reducing your estate for inheritance tax purposes.  When you die, for inheritance tax purposes, your estate is valued at that date and will take in to account anything that you have also given away in the last seven years.  However, each individual can give away £3,000 each tax year without this sum of money being added back in to their estate for inheritance tax purposes. In the event the previous years 'annual allowance' has not been used, this can be carried forwards for one year.

For inheritance tax advice and planning please contact one of our specialist private client solicitors on 01245 228107 or email privateclient@gepp.co.uk 

The above is not legal advice; it is intended to provide information of general interest about current legal issues.