DAVID Cameron has come clean on his financial affairs – admitting he and his wife sold shares worth more than 30,000 pounds in an offshore tax haven fund set up by his late father.
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Cameron said that he made a profit on around 5,000 units he owned in Blairmore Investment Trust, but insisted the money was subjected to British tax rules.
The stake was purchased for £12,497 and sold for £31,500 in January 2010, giving the Camerons a £19,003 profit, £300 below the capital gains tax allowance.
Cameron has cast himself as a champion in the fight against tax evasion, particularly in British-linked territories such as the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, but the opposition Labour Party have said the “Panama Papers” show the government has failed to tackle the issue.
Downing Street first dismissed the story as a private matter on Monday before saying Cameron had no offshore funds, then saying he and his wife and children did not benefit from any offshore funds. But I was keen in 2010 to sell everything – shares, all the rest of it – so I can be very transparent. And as I’ve said, in the future I’m not benefiting from any Cameron family trust.
The loss is embarrassing given the intense public scrutiny on Blairmore’s United Kingdom tax avoidance strategy and the exclusivity of the fund’s investor base.
The company was founded in the 1980s and moved to Ireland in 2012, two years after David became prime minister. “I obviously can’t point to every source of every bit of money, and Dad isn’t around to ask questions now”, he said.
The prime minister said he thought a lot of the criticism against him was based on “a fundamental misconception” that the unit trust was established with the idea of avoiding tax.
“But look, I’m very clear about my situation”.
“I want this list of tax havens in the next six months at the latest”, Moscovici added, urging an acceleration of legislation to that end. “In the subsequent negotiations, we were able to secure a sensible way forward which ensures that trusts which generate tax consequences have to report their ownership to HMRC”.
Cameron indicated in the ITV interview that he would be prepared to publish his tax returns although a previous offer to do so in 2012 did not materialise.
“I’m happy to, you know, go and get on and do that now”.
However, the publication of the letter sent in 2013 raised further questions about what happened to his father’s assets from Blairmore Holdings Inc, details of which were revealed by the leak from Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca.
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The “Panama Papers” add to a hard few weeks for Cameron in which one of his senior ministers resigned, his government was forced to drop a key element of its budget and he has faced accusations of failing to protect Britain’s industrial sector after Tata Steel put its entire United Kingdom operations up for sale.
