BRUSSELS, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Belgian tax inspectors areclaiming more than 367 million euros in taxes from wealthyBelgians who kept accounts with HSBC Private Bank inSwitzerland, which is at the centre of a Belgian tax evasionprobe, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
Some 2,450 Belgians held 3,137 accounts with HSBC's private banking arm in Geneva, each containing between 15,000and 79 million euros, L'Echo reported. Some of the accounts wereheld in the names of Panamanian front companies, the paper said.
The details are among a trove of data on European clients ofHSBC's private banking arm that a former IT analyst at the bank,Herve Falciani, copied in 2006 and 2007 and gave to Frenchprosecutors.
L'Echo did not say how it got hold of the data.
HSBC spokesmen in London and Zurich could not immediately bereached for comment.
Falciani, a Franco-Italian now living in France, has beenpursued since 2009 by Swiss authorities seeking his extraditionon charges of data theft.
Last week, Belgian police raided the homes in Brussels andAntwerp of some 20 clients of HSBC Private Bank as part of aninvestigation into tax evasion, Brussels prosecutors said.
They said 90 federal agents were seeking to establish whatpart HSBC Private Bank's Swiss arm in Geneva might have playedin the administration of its Belgian client base.
Countries around the world are cracking down on tax afterthe global financial crisis put government budgets under strainand increased the need to maximise tax receipts.
Under European Union rules, member states can tax savingseven if they are earned in a different member state.
Under an agreement signed between the bloc and Switzerlandin 2004, people liable to pay Belgian tax were charged a 15percent tax on interest earned from savings held in Switzerland.In 2011 that rate was raised to 35 percent.
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)
