Dave Hartnett, director general of HM Revenue & Customs , has vowed that tax investigators will not limit their search for offshore bank accounts to the five banks targeted by their latest disclosure order, but will extend their search to include all 550 banks in the UK.

AccountancyAge.com exclusively revealed on Friday that only 4,000 people had taken advantage of the 'amnesty' offered to holders of offshore accounts who had not paid tax, a mere 1% of the total of suspicious accounts HMRC is eyeing.

HMRC obtained a disclosure order for five high street banks to release all the details of some 400,000 clients with offshore accounts, and is planning to extend this search to other UK banks.

'It is very important to have a level playing field. We are not going to roll up our tent and go away,' Hartnett told the FT in a follow up article.

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Taxman targets £1.5bn in largest disclosure order