People with illicit savings in foreign bank accounts have been given until July 1, 2014 to notify the tax office and escape a fine.

Junior finance minister Frans Weekers has lifted the threat of a fine to give people enough time to notify the authorities about their savings ahead of a much tougher system of penalties.

From next July, the tax office will be allowed to claim unpaid taxes on unregistered bank accounts stretching back 12 years. They will also add a fine of 30% of the tax owed to the bill. That will double to 60% in 2015.

Earlier this year it emerged some 250 people confessed to the tax office they have secret foreign bank accounts in the first three months of 2013.

Between 2009 and 2011, Dutch people caught using complicated constructions involving foreign trusts and bank accounts were fined a total €430m for tax dodging. An amnesty on illegal foreign savings resulted in 10,000 people declaring a total of €3.1bn.