The taxman has sent letters to 5,000 people who did not respond to the off-shore disclosure facility asking them if they owe any tax.
HM Revenue & Customs obtained the details of 400,000 offshore bank accounts from High Street banks and then offered an offshore disclosure facility to any taxpayers who had not disclosed earnings in offshore bank accounts earlier.
HMRC is now using the letters to follow up on those who did not come forward during the offshore 'amnesty' period.
The letters that will be sent out say: 'Your bank(s) has provided us with details about your account(s). For a limited period HMRC offered a facility to help offshore account holders to get their tax affairs up to date - the offshore disclosure facility.
'Now we are contacting people where we have information but we cannot tell from our records if they have told us about their offshore accounts, and they have not sent us a notification under the terms of the offshore disclosure facility.'
The letter calls for taxpayers to respond in 30 days.
The letter warns that if recipients choose not to respond they 'risk being the subject of a formal tax enquiry' and that the 'penalty could be up to 100% of the tax and duties due'.
'This is a complicated compliance check by the taxman. They are depending very largely on the willingness of offshore account holders to inform the taxman of their financial details,' said Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at ACCA.
He added: 'If this is not done proactively, the taxman will find other ways and means, such as targeting banks and finance providers. They are intent on getting the information they want.'
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