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The Russian oligarch sanctioned Roman Abramovich must be the subject of an investigation into the 1 billion pounds sterling he may, a group of deputies has urged HMRC.
In a letter to the tax authority, Joe Powell, a Labor MP who directs a parliamentary group on fair taxation, refers to the reports of the BBC raising questions on the question of whether the tax is due to offshore investments.
“An appropriate investigation into these questions is essential,” said the letter. HMRC said he was “determined to guarantee that everyone pays the right tax under the law, regardless of wealth or status”.
The lawyers of Mr. Abramovich told the BBC that he “had always obtained independent expert and legal tax advice” and “acted in accordance with these advice”.
The disclosed papers reveal that Mr. Abramovich’s investments worth $ 6 billion (4.7 billion pounds sterling) were sent through British Virgin Islands companies (BVI), but the evidence seen by The BBC suggest that they were managed from the United Kingdom, so should have been taxed there.
The BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have examined the articles for more than a year – thousands of files and emails from a Cyprus based company that administered the World Empire of Mr. Abramovich.
The BBC and its media partners, including The Guardian, reports on the files that have been disclosed since 2023 as part of the International Consortium for the Confidential Investigation Journalists.
Part of the money that financed the Chelsea FC when Mr. Abramovich may have traced the businesses involved in the program, the BBC and its partners have also found.
Mr. Powell’s letter said that these results raise “serious questions about the potential tax responsibilities of Mr. Abramovich”
He called on the HMRC “to investigate and, if necessary, to recover all the funds potentially due by Roman Abramovich to the British tax authorities” in reference to the conclusions of the BBC, the TBIJ and the Guardian.
“Given the extent of the sums involved, ensuring that all unpaid taxes are recovered is a question of public interest, in particular at a time when funds are necessary for public services and to manage the national debt “Added the letter.
An HMRC spokesperson said that he “continued to lead international efforts to improve global transparency”.
“The widest possible powers”
It is not uncommon for companies to legally avoid paying taxes on their profits by investing in companies in tax fires. But the companies involved must be managed and controlled offshore where they are formed.
If strategic decisions of an offshore company are made by someone in the United Kingdom, its profits could be imposed as if it were a British company.
The disclosed documents seen by the BBC show how the directors of investment companies BVI have brought sweeping powers to a friend of Mr. Abramovich, Eugene Shvidler, who lived in the United Kingdom and won British citizenship in 2010.
The BBC saw documents of “general proxy” dated between 2004 and 2008, which gave it the “widest possible powers” and “full power to do anything and anything” to investment companies in BVI .
The lawyers of Mr. Shvidler said that the BBC was based on “confidential commercial documents which presented an incomplete image” and had “drawn solid and erroneous conclusions about the conduct of Mr. Shvidler”.
They declared that “the investment structure” was “the subject of very prudent and detailed tax planning, company and advised by the main tax advisers”.
Cypus Confidential is an international collaborative survey launched in 2023 led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Cyprus companies has provided business and financial services to the partners of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, based on documents of a company service provider initially obtained by the Whistleblowinging, based on documents from a company service provider initially obtained by the Whistleblowing, based on documents from a company service provider initially obtained by Whistleblowingwinging group distributed the denial of secrets.
The media partners include The Guardian, the Investigative News Paper Trail Media, the Italian newspaper L’Espresso, the Crime Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).
TBIJ Reporting Team: Simon Lock and Eleanor Rose.
