Financial Institution v Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs

Facts

This was an ex parte application by the Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs for consent under section 20(8A) of the Taxes Management Act 1970 to serve Notices on a Financial Institution and two named UK subsidiaries, requiring documents about customers with UK addresses holding non-UK bank accounts. The Notices sought names and addresses (excluding public limited companies, Governments, charities, churches, mutuals, trade associations and clubs), together with the date of the application or account opening, the type of account, any other address, the nationality, the country of birth, the date of birth, the business name and address of the employer, the annual income, the initial deposit and its source and the likely source of income into the account, plus statements for six specified months, limited to the six years before issue and ending 5 April 2005. The application followed an earlier consent granted on 5 December 2005 concerning credit cards linked to offshore accounts, released in anonymised form on 11 January 2006. The bank account application had been withdrawn because of an error in the precursor letter and was renewed after revised precursor letters of 5 December 2005. The Financial Institution's solicitors made extensive written representations, objecting on possession, class, human rights, EU law and Savings Directive grounds.