With the ramifications of the Panama Papers
starting to be felt everywhere, Canterbury District Greens have called on
property owners in the District who are registered overseas for tax purposes to
clarify how much tax they pay and to whom.
In September 2015, Private Eye published its
register of properties in England and Wales owned by companies based in tax
havens all over the world. Most are held in this way for tax avoidance and
often to conceal dubious wealth.
Michelle Freeman, Press Officer of Canterbury
District Green Party, commented: "According to this information, as many
as 87 properties in Canterbury's CT1 area alone have been bought by offshore
companies at a cost of £323m.
"All these companies are acting within the
current law, but this allows them to operate out of places where their tax
burden is likely to be significantly lighter than in the UK. While the UK
government continues to cut support for the poorest and most vulnerable in
society, it is allowing companies to minimise the amount of tax they pay to the
UK Treasury."
Land Registry data (https://datasets.landregistry.gov.uk/overseas/dataset) show
that trustees registered in Jersey own the Whitefriars Development, the Marlowe
Arcade and its bridge link, worth over a quarter of a billion pounds in total
according to Private Eye. The same sources also indicate that these trustees own
over £50m worth of property in the same area.
The Greens' Press Officer noted: "As well as
the owners of these units paying little or no UK tax, most of the retailer
tenants are multinationals, which have a reputation for paying little tax in
the UK. In other words, profits made in Canterbury are mainly squirrelled away
in tax havens with very little benefit to Canterbury residents. If these shops
were owned and operated by local independents, as many still are in Whitstable,
those profits could be ploughed back into the local community.
"The same is true of companies owning student
accommodation in Canterbury. A company registered in Guernsey is currently
building student accommodation on the former Peugeot site and we now hear that
the 800-bedroom student complex in Parham Road has been acquired for a Kuwaiti
company, which will be developing a further large site for the same purpose.
Apart from the fact that profits will not be reinvested in Canterbury by these
offshore owners, the Council will receive nothing from their tenants either, as
students pay no council tax."
It is not just property in Canterbury which has
been the target for offshore companies. The Signature Miramar Care Home in
Herne Bay has over £170m worth of its property owned by a company registered in
Luxembourg according to Land Registry and Private Eye data.
Canterbury District Greens' Press Officer
commented: “We think this is all morally wrong. We want to see companies owning
property or operating in the UK registered here and paying the full UK tax
requirements. We would like to know how much offshore tax these companies pay
and to know how much the Treasury would expect if they were registered in the
UK.”
Notes:
http://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry data
collected from 2005 to 2014
