Offshore havens face fresh probe

WEALTHY investors who have salted their cash away in offshore investments to escape the British tax authorities have been warned they face another broadside, this time from the European Union.

Germany is lobbying the EU to extend the 2005 savings tax directive which forced tax authorities to reveal information about those who earned savings income in offshore bank accounts in the wake of a dispute with Liechtenstein over anonymous trust holdings.

The savings directive affected only interest from bank accounts, however, and not dividends from shares, discretionary trusts, structured products and offshore insurance bonds.

This led to billions of pounds pouring out of Jersey bank accounts into complicated products that were outside the rules.