Dutch gov't says informant gives secret tax info

* Dutch government: gets data on 'several hundred' people

* Data includes account numbers, addresses, phone numbers

* Informant set to be paid based on recoveries

AMSTERDAM, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The Dutch government says it has received a list of hundreds of people who have evaded taxes with secret accounts at banks across Europe, and it plans to pay off the informant who slipped it the information.

The deal echoes an early 2008 case in Germany, where the government purchased data on tax evaders from an informant about clients of a Liechtenstein bank. [ID:nB563832]

The German case snared former Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE) chief Klaus Zumwinkel, who was given a suspended jail term in January for evading nearly 1 million euros ($1.47 million) in taxes using a Liechtenstein trust. [ID:nLM752092]

In a statement late on Saturday, the Dutch government said it received the names, addresses, account numbers and phone numbers of several hundred of what the government calls "zwartspaarders", or "black savers."

"This is a group of tax payers which knowingly has been evading taxes for years with large sums of money," Deputy Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said in a letter to parliament.

The tax office has already started sending letters to some of the savers demanding an explanation. The accounts, he said, average several hundred thousand euros each, with some in the tens of millions of euros.

The tipster will be paid based on how accurate the data ends up being and how much revenue is collected. The payoff is capped at "several hundred thousand euros." The government is concealing the name and nationality of the informant.

De Jager said negotiations with the informant started early this year, and that the deal was signed on Sept. 16 after the reliability of the information was tested and government lawyers weighed in on its usability.

The government has been running a system to let undeclared overseas savers reveal themselves and pay a fine, rather than face criminal prosecution. Since early this year 3,000 people have disclosed 680 million euros in assets, De Jager said. (Reporting by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)