Tens of thousands of assets in the United Kingdom are hidden in tax havens The revelations of evasion are yet another blow to Rishi Sunak’s government

From London

Tens of thousands of multi-million dollar assets United Kingdom Belongs to registered companies Tax havens. One of the end users of these companies 20 Biggest Donors to the Conservative PartyThe monarchies of the Middle East, the Chinese government, the driver Lewis HamiltonIllusionist Yuri Keller bent spoons with his gaze Yoko OnoWidow of John Lennon.

The names came to light last year when the Register of Foreign Enterprises (ROE stands for Abbreviation in English) was created. The real owners Behind names and complex structures that hide their identity.

For sale in the UK

With this title (“For Sale United Kingdom”), am Guardian He has uncovered the pot. Three-quarters of the tens of thousands of companies are registered in five tax havens, four of which belong to the British orbit, controlled remotely from London: the British Virgin Islands, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and, by exception, Luxembourg.

Arab countries have more than a billion pounds of London assets registered to companies in the British Virgin Islands and Jersey. In these jurisdictions they pay minimal or zero tax that govern tax havens.

According to him Guardian About 200 traits belong to a nucleus Billionaire Dynasties of the Middle East Owners of hotel chains, luxury properties, mansions, and extensive heirlooms of the super rich. Some sample cases:

* Manchester City tycoon and UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour is the beneficial owner of 17 properties registered on the Isle of Jersey.

* The Qatari monarchy, of recent Argentine football glory, owns assets worth £10bn, including the traditional “British” chain Harrods.

* Royal family members from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain hold 200 assets worth more than £1 billion in companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the sister republic of Panama.

Chinese too

One of the ironic consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the law that created the Register of Foreign Enterprises (ROE). Against ropes for corruption and suspicion of corruption, The then Prime Minister Boris Johnson He saw in the war an opportunity to regain his popularity by becoming a standard-bearer for sanctions against the “Russian oligarchs.”

Pushed by his rhetoric, Johnson was forced to find an old Conservative plan that emerged from the Panama Papers scandal (which implicated then-Prime Minister David Cameron) and pushed Johnson aside in the 2019 elections because his plan would transform the United Kingdom. “Singapore of the Thames” (ie, a tax haven on the banks of the historic river).

The project ended up in the frame that created the ROE and opened this Pandora’s box. Among Betty’s surprise guests was the China Investment Corporation (CIC), a state-owned company that manages China’s vast overseas reserves, with more than $1 trillion in assets worldwide.

About $600 million has been identified as assets in the United Kingdom, although the final figure is estimated to be much higher. Luxembourg and the Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency, are the jurisdictions chosen by the CIC to set up their “entities”.

Funding the Conservative Party

More worrying for voters is that the PC (Conservative Party) has been funded in recent decades by the real owners of companies in tax havens. About 20 party donors, including telecoms, steel and finance tycoons, are the ultimate beneficiaries of more than 150 overseas companies set up to acquire property and other assets in the UK. In total, they contributed £21 million to the Conservative Party, which won five consecutive elections in the last 12 years. Two lords, Irvine Laidlaw and Stanley Fink (former PC treasurer) each donated more than £3 million to the Tories’ coffers.

In this landscape, “celebrities” cannot disappear. Racing legend Lewis Hamilton owns three properties in the British Virgin Islands, including a £16million-plus apartment in central London. Yoko Ono recorded the first property where John Lennon lived in Delaware, USA.

Who funds the state?

The UK has been rocked by a crackdown on government departments since last June and the revelations are another blow to a shaky government ahead of a virtual public services general strike on Wednesday.

In a battle for public opinion, the government promises not to allow a fiscal increase with 100% public debt. Expressions of Guardian And ROE files show massive tax evasion behind the tightening of debt and state accounts.

The official estimate is around £32bn a year, but this figure doubles when tax avoidance and various legal loopholes favoring the rich are included. Nadim Zahawi, the leader of the Conservative Party and former finance minister, was removed from his post after months of dragging out allegations of tax evasion worth five million pounds on Sunday.

One of the problems conservatives have is a millionaire Prime Minister Rishi Sunak You can’t be more proud of this episode. Apart from two fines – one for flouting Covid restrictions, one for not wearing a seatbelt – his wife, Indian billionaire Akshata Murthy, has long benefited from one of the many rules favored by British billionaires: the “I’m a Dom”, tax exemption. All English residents who have registered a “permanent” address abroad.

These clever mechanisms and domestic double standards for the rich do not apply to teachers, professors, nurses, doctors and other public sector employees, who are given an average increase of 4% against 11% inflation after more than ten years of virtual salaries. to freeze Not just opposition parties or trade unions, but also NGOs like the Tax Justice Network have openly insisted: the tax system must be fixed to end malaria. “If you earn income from investments or property, you pay far less tax than the average worker. Thus a banker pays less than his secretary. Tens of thousands of pounds a year are lost through this hole. Another way to combat the problem is to end the “I’m Dom” scandal. “Closing loopholes and ending tax evasion by multinationals will change the landscape,” he said. Page I1 Rob Palmer UK Director of Tax Justice.

The government is unwilling to change course for now. He resists calls from conservative sectors to cut taxes “now”, but in the medium term, he has plans to create “mini Canary Wharfs” (a London financial sector area with special tax breaks) to restart the UK economically. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt’s budget in March (who has been embroiled in a tax evasion case) will reveal how this battle continues between tax evasion/avoidance by the rich and multinationals and the funding of public services. The fate of the Conservative government.