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<p>Information provided to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by the French
tax authorities in respect of individuals indicated to hold accounts at the Geneva
branch of HSBC Suisse and understood to be UK residents was supplied to HMRC under
the terms of both the Mutual Assistance Directive 77/799/EEC and the Double Taxation
Convention in force between France and the United Kingdom at that time:</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31977L0799"
target="_blank">http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31977L0799</a></p><p>
</p><p><a href="http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxtreaties/in-force/france.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxtreaties/in-force/france.pdf</a></p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Mutual Assistance Directive had been in force since 23
December 1977. The Double Taxation Convention has been in force since 18 December
2009, replacing an earlier convention which had been in force since 1969.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>Since their entry into force each of these agreements has been a matter
of public record.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It is the responsibility of HMRC to
determine the appropriate nature and scope of any response to information received
under the provisions of a relevant double taxation convention.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
</p><p>Ministers are not made aware of individual cases due to taxpayer confidentiality.
At no point were ministers made aware by HMRC of any suggestion of wrong doing by
HSBC itself.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>On receipt of the data referred to, a project
team was immediately established, led by the then Directors of Risk & Intelligence
Service, Criminal Investigations and Specialist Investigations. The then Director—General
was the senior responsible officer for the governance of the project.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>The data was cleansed, reducing the 6,800 entities referred to in the
data to around 3,600 identified individuals with a potential UK connection. Further
analysis confirmed that over 3,100 of these individuals could be traced. Following
risk assessment, HMRC adopted a range of approaches to ensure that all of those individuals
were appropriately challenged over their UK tax compliance. More than £135 million
has been recovered to date.</p><p> </p><p>The purpose of the UK Swiss tax cooperation
agreement is to secure the UK tax compliance of those UK residents holding accounts
in Switzerland, through a combination of tax deductions at source and the release
of detailed account information.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The groundbreaking
agreement introduced by this Government has secured over £1.2 billion, with more to
come. This is money coming in to the UK exchequer from a jurisdiction previously beyond
our reach and clearly demonstrates how this Government have supported HMRC’s determined
approach in tackling tax evasion.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>This deal has secured
£1.2bn in tax for the Exchequer that we would not have otherwise received. The declaration
does not prevent anyone from providing information to HMRC voluntarily or via a third
party, and would not have prevented HMRC from receiving the data from Mr Falciani
or any other whistleblower.</p><p> </p>
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