THE GLOBAL TAX HAVEN SCANDAL from the leaked ‘Panama papers’ exposed links between the tax haven firm Mossack Fonseca and almost every nation on earth.
Over half of the 215,000 firms identified in the leaks are based in UK administered tax havens - placing the UK at the heart of a system linked to money laundering, crime and systematic tax evasion.
The industry, worth at least an astonishing £13 trillion, has been blamed for fomenting war, money laundering and vast global inequalities.
Tax havens are linked to the heart of UK politics.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s father
PM David Cameron is linked to offshore tax haven company Blairmore Holdings Incorporated supported by his late father.
Cameron senior “helped create and develop” the $20m firm in 1982 through to his death in 2010. The company promoted itself to investors as not being liable for UK tax, despite many investors being British businesspeople.
Cameron is now facing questions over what he knew about Blairmore Holdings and whether he has gained or will gain financially from the tax haven investments.
The Cameron family also uses the British Virgin Islands tax haven to register the 19,000 acres Scottish Jura estate of Lord Astor, his father in law.
The UK Government’s ‘Overseas Territories’ and Crown Dependencies
Over half the tax haven firms exposed were registered in UK administered territories. The British Virgin Islands was the top location for Mossack Fonseca operations.
Premier of the Cayman Islands Alden McLaughlin, commenting on who could shut down the tax haven said: "Ultimately the UK can because they have the overriding responsibility.”
Other tax haven and secrecy jurisdictions include: Jersey, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, Montserrat, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
The UK, and the legally unique ‘City of London Corporation’, can also be considered as tax and secrecy havens.
Elizabeth Windsor, the Queen, and Coutts and Co.
Elizabeth Windsor's family bank Coutts & Co are implicated in the Panama Papers scandal. They made 487 tax haven firm start-up requests to Mossack Fonseca, making them one of the most prominent applicants to tax haven schemes.
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