Expert research commissioned by the Sunday Times before the new year deemed the UK the world’s first “onshore tax haven.” Acountancy firm Grant Thornton calculated the scale of tax avoidance by the super-rich and concluded that Britain’s 54 billionaires pay tax on only a tiny fraction of their wealth. The Sunday Times was forced to commission the research after HM Revenues & Customs (HMRC) refused requests by the newspaper under the freedom of information act to disclose the aggregate payments made by Britain’s super-rich.
Even though no names would have been made public, the HMRC claimed the release of such information would breach taxpayer confidentiality. According to Grant Thornton the UK’s billionaires paid income tax totalling just under £15 million on their £126 billion combined fortunes. Only a mere handful pay capital gains tax. More than 32 of the individual billionaires or family groups were calculated not to have paid one penny of personal taxation on their fortunes, even though they are all liable for value added tax (VAT) and council tax.
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