Offshore accounts and capital gains

It's something that I'm asked pretty frequently - can CGT be avoided by keeping proceeds in an offshore account? In the past it was fairly common and people even sold UK assets and kept the cash offshore. Unfortunately this is tax evasion - which is a criminal offence, and in my book is out of the question. Many of these people are now feeling the heat if they had the cash in an offshore country that is within the EUSD's disclosure regime (click here for details of this) or if they have accounts which the Revenue have accessed directly. It was therefore never a good idea to 'hide' assets offshore. This applies whether your disposing of UK or overseas assets. So even if you're selling an overseas business the gain would still be subject to UK taxes (although the reliefs available would be significant click here for more info on this). The only time when you could actually avoid UK tax by using an offshore account would be if you're a non UK domiciliary.