
How much is it REALLY owed
6 years ago I opened a bank account in the UK expecting to go there. My wife was refused a visa at the Paris embassy and so I changed my mind.
HMRC receives information on bank accounts now, courtesy of SnoopLabour and started issuing tax returns and penalties for not filling them in. Of course when I found out, I closed the now dormant account. I am not resident and so not liable for UK tax.
So you say the tax man is owed lots of money? Perhaps in it's own mind. However they're smart enough not to spend billions chasing money they know isn't really owed.
But it's interesting to see that bank account information is sent to HMRC (presumably also balances and interest). And that HMRC presumes tax residence if you open an account there and starts issuing penalties automatically.
So for all the non joined up databases they have they seems to issue a lot of false tax returns and seem to have far too much information already.
I'm not sure why British people let their banks disclose their private information to the tax office, perhaps SnoopLabour did it without telling them?