LONDON (AP) -- The British government is considering whether to require the identification of individuals who sponsor tax avoidance schemes.

The proposal was disclosed Monday as the government's tax office launched a formal consultation on a range of measures to crack down on plans designed purely to avoid tax.

Treasury minister David Gauke says the measures are aimed at plans which are clearly contrary to the intentions of Parliament, which lack a commercial, non-tax rationale and where the result looks "too good to be true.''

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs says identifying individual sponsors would be significant in cases where a firm is dissolved, moved offshore or the individual moves to another firm.