General Election 2015: Labour piles the pressure on David Cameron over his election chief’s 'complex' tax affairs
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Version 0 of 1. Labour has piled the pressure on David Cameron and his election chief Lynton Crosby to “come clean” over whether the Australian has gained personally from his “complex” tax affairs and his non-dom status. Mr Crosby’s complicated network of business interests reveals “a man who appears to be up to his neck in tax avoidance,” according to Margaret Hodge, who has played a key role in challenging multinational corporations such as Google and Starbucks over tax avoidance in her role as chair of the Public Accounts Committee. In an article for The Independent the veteran Labour MP demands to know whether Mr Crosby has benefited personally from his “complex web” of “offshore interests” and his status as a non-domicile resident, which allows him to avoid having to declare income earned overseas to the UK tax man as long as it is not brought into the UK. Margaret Hodge, who has taken multinational corporations to task over tax avoidance Ms Hodge accuses the Prime Minister and Mr Crosby of hypocrisy over their failure to answer questions about the Australian’s personal tax affairs while previously being happy to challenge others. The questions raised by Labour concern the unpublished accounts of Rutland Ltd, a company he is director of and which is owned by Bentley Trust, a company specialising in “wealth management” and “legitimate mitigation” of tax. Rutland Ltd did not file its 2014 accounts and earlier this year it filed for an 18-month “extension of period allowed for laying accounts”. Despite being based in the tax haven of Malta, 90 per cent of its interests are understood to lie outside Malta. Google, Amazon and Starbucks have all been challenged by Margaret Hodge over their controversial tax arrangements Rutland Ltd is part-owned by Catherine Place Investments, a company that is itself owned by APG Ltd, which is based in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. Another company he is a director of – Rutland Holdings, also based in Malta – declared substantial profits in its 2013 accounts, including €1.23 million in “income from investments”. No details about the nature of its business or these “investments” are given or required under Malta’s law but Labour believes the UK public has a right to know. Mr Crosby’s spokesman told The Independent in a statement that he had never avoided or attempted to avoid paying his full tax obligations in the UK. It stated: "It has been a matter of public record since 2013… that Lynton Crosby pays tax in the UK, on his UK earnings, at exactly the same rate as any UK citizen. There is no public interest in publishing false allegations about the financial affairs of a private individual. Lynton Crosby, the Australian election guru masterminding the Tory election campaign "There is nothing new in this. It is simply a gratuitous attempt to re-publish year-and-a-half-old, unfounded allegations. This information has been public for years, even before it was reported back in 2013,” the spokesman added. "Rutland is a perfectly legitimate Malta-based company that fulfils all of its tax obligations in Malta and its fully audited accounts and directorships have been public for years. "Rutland has never done any business in the UK, nor paid wages nor dividends to anyone in the UK. It has not received fees from any UK company, body, entity or individual. “Any claim, or attempt to claim, that Mr Crosby avoids, or attempts to avoid, paying anything but his full tax obligations is categorically wrong and defamatory and will rightly be treated as such. Further, any claim, or attempt to claim, that Rutland was set up, or is used, to avoid paying UK tax is also categorically wrong and defamatory." Ms Hodge claims the Conservative party is “running scared” of the growing questions Mr Crosby faces. She also suggests their fierce opposition to Labour’s pledge to scrap the controversial non-dom tax status and plans to crackdown on those who shelter money in tax havens may have been influenced by Mr Crosby’s personal circumstances. “We need to know whether the Tory campaign chief, the man telling you how to vote, has avoided any tax due here in the UK, either through his non-dom status or his complex web of Maltese companies,” she writes. “Given Lynton Crosby’s powerful role in the Tory party, it is inconceivable that David Cameron or George Osborne didn’t discuss the Tory response to Labour’s announcement [on scrapping the non-dom status] with him. “Do we have a Tory non dom determining non dom policy, and a director of an offshore company setting tax avoidance policy? “Cameron must also now come clean about what he knew and when about his key lieutenant’s tax arrangements and when. Failure to do so will only confirm suspicions that the Tory party is the political wing of the tax avoidance industry.” “Despite the warm words and promises, under the Tories the gap between tax collected and tax owed has grown and loopholes which benefit hedge funds remain open.” In her article, Ms Hodge accuses Mr Cameron of hypocrisy over his publicly-stated stance on criticising aggressive tax avoidance. In January 2013 he told the World Economic Forum in Davos that firms such as Starbucks must “wake up and smell the coffee” and pay their “fair share” of tax, while he has also described aggressive tax avoidance as “quite frankly, morally wrong”. Attacking the Prime Minister today, Ms Hodge writes: “I thought the tide was finally turning on the Tories’ approach to tax avoidance. But I should have known better. Actions speak louder than words, and today’s revelations about Lynton Crosby, the Tories’ election chief, show the reality. “Few people in the Conservative party wield as much power as Lynton Crosby. Yet this is a man who appears to be up to his neck in tax avoidance. “Looking at the sheer complexity of his network of offshore interests, it is difficult to see what purpose these arrangements can possibly serve other than to avoid tax.” The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as possible. Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed: All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report) |