Tonight’s Channel 4 Dispatches was timed to coincide with the Comprehensive Spending Review later this week, and will cause the Government and especially the Chancellor George Osborne as one of those investigated some major headaches when he gets up on Wednesday and announces £83 billion pounds of cuts after the endless claims of We’re all this together. They look even more hollow now.
I can only find reference to the story in the Daily Mail (note the irony) it’s says ‘Three Cabinet millionaires have been dragged into a ‘tax dodging’ row.
A Channel Four investigation to be screened tonight is expected to make a series of claims about the financial affairs of Chancellor George Osborne, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell.
All three men vehemently deny wrongdoing, and Mr Hammond warned last night that he would sue if the Dispatches programme implied he had tried to avoid paying his taxes.
A senior Government insider described the allegations as ‘outrageous’.
The programme is expected to claim that the men have used a variety of ‘wealth management’ techniques to protect their fortunes.
While none is accused of illegal tax evasion, the subject of legal tax avoidance is highly sensitive as the Coalition government promotes the slogan ‘We’re all in this together’ in tackling the budget deficit.
Dispatches highlights the decision by Mr Mitchell to invest in two property investment funds in the British Virgin Islands – a well-known tax haven where profits are beyond Britain’s corporation tax laws. He is said to have invested at least £130,000.
The programme also focuses on Mr Hammond, whose £7.5million fortune makes him one of the wealthiest of the Cabinet’s 18 millionaires.
It suggests that his practice of paying himself share dividends instead of a salary from his property firm Castlemead is a tax-efficient device used by the wealthy.
And it claims that he moved to limit his exposure to the new 50p top rate of tax last year by moving shares in the firm into the name of his wife who pays tax at a lower rate. It is suggested the move could save him more than £25,000 a year.
The Dispatches programme entitled 'How the rich beat the Taxman’ is on Channel 4 tonight at 8pmAny source
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