Financial Transparency Coalition

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 300 banks will be forced to give British tax authorities details about customers holding offshore bank accounts following a ruling Wednesday.

Bloomberg -- The U.K. and Liechtenstein agreed to a tax arrangement that allows British investors in the principality to declare their holdings voluntarily, providing a possible model for treaties seeking to combat tax havens.

I’m not going to get over-excited, I hope, but I think the new UK / Liechtenstein Tax Information Exchange Agreement moves information exchange into a new era. This deal is like no other Tax Information Exchange Agreement. Take this from the preamble:

The Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (together “the Contracting Parties”) desiring to:

(a) regulate the exchange of information with respect to taxes between the Contracting Parties and facilitate tax cooperation and taxpayer assistance, and

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A big accountancy firm has denied that it has been peddling a tax avoidance scheme to help rich people avoid paying the new 50% income tax rate from 2010.