HSBC - more unpleasant goings on

Why has only one individual been prosecuted? This would not happen to people accused of benefit fraud.

Until we are prepared to say that if you leave the country because you will not pay the tax you need to, that's OK, we will not stop these often incredibly wealthy people avoiding or evading the tax they should be paying. We also need to get rid of every single tax allowance that we can.

My question - why are our tax authorities not pursuing HSBC???

Probably because they are not as clever.

Soontobe - I agreed with you 100%. I can't believe that this is OK when poorer people have to resort to food banks and there is no escape from the bedroom tax.
Are we building up bigger problems for the future?

I spoke to HSBC recently about the fact that I get absolutely nothing back from them even though I've been a loyal customer for most of my adult life and queried if they planned, at any time in the future, to pay me interest on my current account etc and the reply was that, no, they didn't plan to do so. I told them that, if that was the case I would have to switch to Santander or another bank that repaid my loyalty. This has pretty much made the decsion for me.

The man in charge at the time was Stephen Green , who was made a Conservative Peer and then served as a minister, so I guess that means he's going to get away without any consequences.

It is all getting to be a muddled, tangled web at the top of this country.

Tegan I phoned First Direct recently and asked them exactly the same. Why should I lend them my money for free, so they can then lend it to others for high interest? Asked ' who is the bank here- you or me? Told them I was going to take the money out and blow it on things I'd enjoy doing... I asked for my message to be passed on to Senior management, not sure if that was done.

I'd propose that all of us on GN phone our bank and complain about the pityful interest we are getting, or none! If 1000s of us phone in a matter of days- thereatening to take our money out, the penny might drop (!). Grrr.

I think more is coming out at the moment, I was reading earlier this morning. It's tempting me to change banks. On the other hand, who knows what goes on elsewhere? Maybe the others simply haven't been caught yet. 2007 was very much the time when bankers thought they could get away with anything.

I don't know why anyone puts up with no interest current accounts anymore, I am with Santander originally Girobank and have been for many years and my current account earns me quite a few ££££'s each month in fact I transferred an old small ISA into my current acc as the rate was better and I don't have to faff around each year when the ISA rates drop like a stone to find a new one...

Santander hasn't been without troubles, though.

For those of us who live abroad, ISAs and bonds are not avaialble.

There is a petition on www.sumofus.org to ask HSBC to give names.
Can't put a direct link to the petition because it gives all my details.

At the same time there is lots in the papers about how generous Osborne is being to pensioners, allowing pensioner bonds to go on for longer.
8000 HSBC bank accounts saving £21 billion averages over £2.6 million per account. Pensioner bonds are chicken feed in comparison.
He would not need to have pensioner bonds to get money in if he sorted out the tax problem.

The tax evasion by big companies is becoming a big issue.

Do Governments of whatever colour have the will and ability to deal with it?
Particularly as it is an international issue.

From www.taxresearch.org.uk

"Last year more than 200,000 people were prosecuted for not having a TV licence.

More than fifty – many of them women – went to prison for it.

But HMRC say it is not in the public interest to prosecute tax criminals and the bankers and accountants who set arrangements for them.

How can that be?

Which minister wants to explain how we go to this absurd position?"
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There are two separate issues aren't there? One is tax avoidance and that is where Starbucks, Amazon , Boots etc come in by using places like Luxembourg etc. Then there's this HSBC issue which seems to be tax evasion - rich individuals deliberately hiding their wealth in Switzerland. Both issues need dealing with - for the latter, I wish someone would publish the list for starters! I have very dark suspicions as to why we don't get more prosecutions but better not articulate them. World at One had politicians from both sides blaming each other. What I'd like is for them all to say that they are all culpable and have done nothing meaningful for decades and they now intend to act together to deal with the matter consensually. Goodness me, I have just seen something pink flying by

whistleblower uncovered situation in 2007 ?
Labour administration then and it happened under their watch to begin with - so much for the 'loight touch' regulation.

Dave Hartnett was the HMRC boss who negotiated the notorious tax deal that granted HSBC’s bankers virtually guaranteed immunity from prosecution for any crimes they might have committed relating to tax fraud in Switzerland.

And then in January 2013 he went on to work for….HSBC.

You couldn’t make it up.
- See more at: www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/02/09/the-man-who-did-the-deal-that-gave-hsbc-immunity-went-on-to-work-for-hsbc/#sthash.D4xXLv9S.dpuf

Mollie, why does a labour administration have to have a strange accent? What are you trying to say?

I have just seen Cameron say what a good man Lord Green is and that the government is doing more for transparency than any other government in the world.
Do we believe him?
Does he think we are idiots?

granjura; I, too asked for my message to be passed on but was told that they were 'sure that the higher eschelons were in touch with how people felt'. I pointed out that I'd be well fed up if I moved my account and then a week later HSBC started offering interest etc. I've stuck with them because, unlike a lot of banks, they have kept a small branch open in a nearby village that I can get to by bus if I have to, but enoughs enough now.

You obviously do not believe that the Tories were asking Brown to deregulate even more.

At least the Post Office are now having bank accounts again, Tegan.
There were three banks when I moved here five years ago. Now there is one, and one I refuse to move to, so I have to go into Durham to pay cheques in when I get them. That's the only reason I need a branch.

Anybody interested there is an 'urgent question' on this at 3.30 freeview 131.

Just switched over from 130, and my MP was on!

durhamjen any reason why you can't just post the cheques with a paying in slip? That would save you the trip. Quite of the subject I know