Tax evaders forced to pay up

“Tax evaders with secret accounts in Switzerland hand over 260 million euros to inland revenue,” headlines Público. Acting on information supplied by their colleagues in France, Spanish tax inspectors have succeeded in recovering 260 million euros from Spanish nationals with accounts in the Swiss subsidiary of HSBC. About half of the 659 people identified “have now paid up,” says the daily. However, the Spanish government has been criticised by the opposition and prosecutors for being too lenient with the tax evaders, with the national association of tax inspectors deploring what it considers to be an “secret tax amnesty.”