The taxman has admitted paying £100,000 to an informer for details of bank accounts in tax haven Liechtenstein.
Sources at the tax authority said this morning they hoped to recoup £100m from the data, which was 'checked out' before the payment was made.
'If we do pay somebody for information we make sure it's good quality before we hand over taxpayers' cash,' the source said.
The UK tax authorities are now understood to be writing to individuals on the list.
The move follows a high-profile assault by the German government on Liechtenstein tax evaders. The German finance ministry paid the same informant several million euros for data on its citizens.
The individual was convicted of fraud in 2004 for stealing sensitive information from his employer the LGT, which is controlled by the principality's royal family.
'There will be many frightened people who thought that Liechtenstein was secure,' one City accountant told The Sunday Times.
Liechtenstein has come under fire after the German authorities called for the alpine tax haven to drop its secrecy rules which shield rich individuals salting away cash from the taxman's gaze.
'HMRC is using the powers given to it by parliament to protect the exchequer from those who seek to hide behind secrecy laws to deprive the UK of tax revenues,' the department told The Guardian.
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