IT contractors are being warned against investing their money in offshore accounts due to its cost to the UK.

Stephen Timms, financial secretary to the Treasury, claims that hiding money in this way is economically and morally unacceptable, advising people to use legitimate tax solutions instead.

He says: "It robs public services of funding and places an unfair burden on the honest majority of taxpayers."

The UK government will be moving forward efforts to prevent offshore tax evasion, he states.

Mr Timms warns that there has already been significant success in shutting down these attempts.

Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), calls on any IT contractors with outstanding undisclosed offshore accounts to get in touch with his organisation before they are caught.

In other news, the HMRC is running a number of courses designed to educate IT contractors about their self-employment status and how this affects their tax.