HM Revenue & Customs faces an amusing little problem.

A fortnight ago it won a crucial victory in its battle against offshore tax fraud, earning the right to peruse the customer details of an unnamed bank.

The problem is, the ‘Inland Revenue side’ is not allowed to share any information that may be of relevance with its ‘Customs’ colleagues.

‘Before the merger it could have done so under a statutory provision,’ the court documents say.

Chinese walls gone mad or two departments’ worth of red tape for the price of one, asks TS?

So much for the merger’s supposed synergies.