LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - The British government is hopeful banks will sign up to a new voluntary tax code, a minister said on Monday.
Financial Secretary at the Treasury Stephen Timms said he expected bank directors to take a lead and commit personally to the scheme.
"The code, I hope, will be signed up to by all the banks and I'm very hopeful that we will see a very high level of support and agreement with the code right across the banking sector," he told BBC radio.
Banks have been accused of breaking the spirit of the law by the use of elaborate schemes allowing them to escape billions of pounds in taxes. [ID:nLQ276998]
A consultation paper on the new code of practice proposes that anyone found to be deliberately involved in non-compliance could be the subject of a report by the Revenue and Customs (tax agency), but there would be no fine or jail sentence.
Timms said he thought the proposals would be "pretty effective" in bringing a change of behaviour, and early signs of agreement were encouraging.
"I think what has changed is the banks of course recognise they have been the recipients of very substantial public support," he said.
"I think they recognise now that they need to be seen to be doing the right thing on tax, having benefited from all that public support, rather than the wrong thing which frankly is what's happened too often in the past.
"So I think the time is right for a serious change of behaviour."
The consultation is expected to end in 12 weeks, a source familiar with the process said last week. (Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by David Holmes)