Chancellor in 'tough' move to claim back £10bn in tax havens

The UK is entering into talks with three tax havens which could help raise 10 billion for the Treasury by 2015, it was revealed yesterday.

Chancellor George Osborne described the move as "tough but fair".

And he confirmed that the UK is also in discussions with Switzerland that could see the Alpine state help to tax British citizens' assets in secret accounts held there.

Switzerland is also expected to introduce a withholding tax on new deposits while preserving its banking secrecy laws.

A banking transparency arrangement struck recently with Liechtenstein appears to be delivering more than the 1?bn predicted in the last budget, officials indicated.

Now three further tax havens, which have not been identified, have agreed to go into talks with Britain next week over similar arrangements.

If all of the deals are successfully concluded, the three unnamed tax havens, Liechtenstein and Switzerland could between them help Britain raise an estimated 10bn over the coming five years.

Osborne said: "We are all in this together, and that includes those who try to evade tax.

"We are in the process of striking a deal with Switzerland and more deals will follow.

"In total, this will raise many billions of pounds which the previous government failed to do. This is tough but fair."