25 recruited into new offshore tax investigation team
HMRC launches Offshore Co-ordination Unit, bringing together large tranche of investigation work
THE FIRST WAVE of HM Revenue & Customs’ new offshore investigators has been allocated into a newly-created group.
The Offshore Co-ordination Unit (OCU) will bring together 25 investigators primarily to look at bank account data gathered through various amnesties and procured data discs.
The new recruits, revealed in October by Accountancy Age, are part of the 100 new roles announced by chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander in September.
No timescale has been set on allocating the next 75 posts, an HMRC spokesman said.
Exchequer secretary to the Treasury David Gauke, said: “The days when untaxed income or capital could be safely salted away offshore, beyond the reaches of the taxman, are long gone.
“The launch of this specialist unit, together with the other valuable work the department is driving forward in an effort to tackle offshore evasion, underlines the fact that offshore tax cheats are fast running out of places to hide.”