The millions of documents obtained from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca firm revealed that Cameron once owned shares in his father’s offshore company, causing United Kingdom politicians to demand he clarify his involvement in any offshore dealings.
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David Cameron released his tax data from the past six years in the hopes of being more transparent, but several media outlets are curious about his mother gifting him more than $280,000 in 2011.
Mr Cameron told MPs in the House of Commons that he is bringing forward proposals to criminalise firms whose employees abet tax crimes in the wake of the so-called “Panama Papers” leaks that exposed how the wealthy put their money in offshore havens.
Announcing the move, Mr Cameron said: “The UK has been at the forefront of worldwide action to tackle the global scourge of aggressive tax avoidance and evasion, and worldwide corruption more broadly”.
“That is why we will legislate this year to hold companies who fail to stop their employees facilitating tax evasion criminally liable”.
As he stood at the dispatch box, finance minister George Osborne, London mayor Boris Johnson and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also released details of their taxes.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has derided what he said are “deeply hurtful and profoundly untrue allegations” against his deceased father, whose name had appeared in the leaked Panama Papers that revealed his offshore investment funds.
Thousands of people demonstrated outside the gathering on Saturday, demanding that Cameron resign and mocking the Panamanian law firm at the heart of the leak, with the slogan: “Mossack Fonseca: Because taxes are for poor people”.
Cameron said his government would introduce a bill that would hold employers criminally liable if they permit employees to promote tax-dodging schemes. And British newspapers found fresh angles to criticize his financial disclosures, including his failure to include 500,000 pounds in cash received from his family estate in three tax-free payments following his father’s death in September 2010.
“The prime minister has been forced to admit that not only had he benefited from a company that paid no tax in 30 years, but that he may pay no tax on any benefits potentially gained from the same company”, a Labor Party spokesman said.
Cameron published tax records on Sunday to try and defuse criticism over his handling of the fallout from the Panama Papers, in which his late father was mentioned for setting up an offshore fund.
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“David Cameron can’t hide any more”. All taxes had been paid on both sums and were in full compliance with the law, the prime minister said. He also said Cameron’s government had cut resources at the tax authority as part of its fiscal austerity drive, and that had left the body unequal to its task.
