Under the agreement, people with assets taxable by the UK authorities which are held in Switzerland have a choice of authorising their financial institution to disclose the details to HMRC or have a levy and withholding tax of 48% applied by the institution. This money is then paid by the institution to HMRC.
This first tranche covers arrears of tax which should have been paid to the UK.
In a statement released this morning, HMRC said the deal had so far recouped £342m and that it is on track to deliver about £5bn in unpaid tax to the UK.
Exchequer secretary David Gauke said: “Our agreement with the Swiss Government will deliver around £5bn of previously unpaid tax to the UK.
“The first down payment of 500 million Swiss francs has now been received. This is money which was owed to the UK and has now been paid.
“Offshore evasion costs the UK billions of pounds every year and we are determined to tackle it. One of the ways is through information exchange and this agreement makes it easier for HMRC to obtain information about UK taxpayers suspected of hiding money in Switzerland.”
