Tax Avenger’s own integrity in question
Margaret Hodge, leader of the Public Accounts Committee and would-be expert on tax avoidance, has been exposed as a hypocrite following The Times report that she was the beneficiary of an offshore trust.
Hodge has been a persistent critic of tax avoidance and offshore tax planning but it has now been revealed that she was the recipient of more than £1.5 million in shares following the winding up of a Liechtenstein trust in 2011 that held shares in Stemcor, a steel trading business set up by her father. The Tax Avenger has however distanced herself from any wrongdoing, claiming that she had no involvement in establishing or running the company and did not become a beneficiary of the foundation until 2011 when she was given approximately 96,000 Stemcor shares from the renowned tax haven of Lichtenstein. This came about as a result of the Lichtenstein Disclosure Facility, a tax deal that allows affluent UK citizens to declare previously undisclosed assets to HMRC in return for payment of the tax owed plus a more favourable rate of penalty and immunity from prosecution.
Hodge’s Stemcor shares have always been declared in the parliamentary register of financial interests and she further absolved herself of any misdemeanour by saying that she had been given assurances that the company had always paid the “appropriate tax” and that the gift of shares was “above board” and that she paid all relevant taxes in full. Apparently this happened each time she received any benefit from Stemcor.
The damaging revelations do not stop there however, as The Times further discovered that 75% of the shares in the Lichtenstein trust had previously been held in Panama, a country which Hodge only last month vilified as “ one of the most secretive jurisdictions” and with “the least protection anywhere in the world against money laundering.”
I cannot envisage the Tax Avenger accepting her own evidence so readily from those she cares to accuse of tax avoidance. This woman has been the scourge of big business and, quite recently, a huge accountancy firm. She likes to dish the dirt, or what she misguidedly thinks is dirt, but this time its been flung back and just might stick or is this just wishful thinking?!
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