Tax-free compensation for holocaust victims
Holocaust victims are to receive compensation from British banks that froze their accounts half a century ago free of tax.
The concession was announced in the Commons by Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo, but she held back from calling on banks to pay the compound interest due on the balances held in dormant accounts since they were frozen under the Trading with the Enemy Act in World War II.
Primarolo said it was ‘right’ that victims or their beneficiaries who had monies restored to them ‘should receive not only the original capital but some form of compensation.’
She said the exemption applied to any money paid out by the banks under the British Bankers’ Association’s Restore UK initiative and covered income tax as well as death duties.