Lloyds braced for tax row
LLOYD Banking Group is facing an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over allegations that it helped wealthy clients avoid tax.
Footage obtained by BBC’s Panorama shows a banker at the Jersey arm of Lloyds TSB Offshore telling an undercover reporter posing as a customer that he can channel funds through Hong Kong to “get around” the European Savings Tax Directive.
When the customer said he did not want to pay tax, the banker said: “It’s of no interest to us whether you tell the taxman or not. It is not our business.”
The Lloyds employee also talked of “brainstorming” ways to avoid paying tax on the funds.
The affair is an embarrassment for Lloyds, led by chief executive Eric Daniels, given the taxpayer’s stake in the bank and Gordon Brown’s pledge of an “end to tax havens”.