SIR PHILIP Green the retail billionaire and former BHS owner launched a staunch defence after a Scots MP suggested he was involved in "entirely legitimate tax avoidance".
The Arcade retail empire owner dubbed 'the king of the High Street' has said he moved to Monaco in 1998 because of his health and his family when he had no businesses, following quizzing from Edinburgh West MP Michelle Thomson.
He said that it was suggested to him as a good place to recuperate after a “heart scare”.
He said he had a “clean conscience” about his family’s ownership of his retail empire, which is owned in off-shore Monaco account in Lady Green’s name.
Residents of Monaco pay next to no tax.
Companies held in the name of Lady Green are believed to account for the lion’s share of the couple’s wealth, which the Sunday Times Rich List puts at £3.2bn.
Read more: Sir Philip Green apologies to BHS staff and vows to sort pension scheme
Green, one of Britain’s most successful businesspeople, has been summoned by the Business, Innovation and Skills and the Work and Pensions committees, to explain his part in the BHS scandal that is costing 11,000 jobs and threatening the pensions of thousands more former employees.
BHS, the retail chain he sold just a year ago for £1, has gone into administration leaving a £571m hole in its pension fund.
Green said he did not think it was a "secret" that there were tax advantages in Monaco but said that the corporate structure of BHS was "see-through".
On his family's move to Monaco, due to his health reasons, he said: "I didn't go there with a plan to start coming back here and working like I worked. I didn't know how life would turn out."
Read more: Scottish BHS staff break their silence over their bitter betrayal
He bristled when Ms Thomson, said that it "may be legitimate tax avoidance" having pointed out that Green’s property operation is based offshore, in Jersey, outside the UK tax jurisdiction.
Source: parliament.live.tv
He said: "I'm sorry, I don't accept that at all, I think 30 or 40 percent of the FTSE is owned by non-UK corporations. "If we go round the High Street and other industries here, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of non-UK investors. Do you want to say, every non-UK holder is a tax avoider. I am sorry there are people doing business in this country... who compete against us who don't pay tax as a normal course of business.
Read more: 800 Scottish jobs to go as BHS goes into liquidation
"If you don't want non-UK investors, then so be it, but I am sorry, that's not what I designed or set up, that's the system."
Sir Philip said he could have taken “much more aggressive routes to avoid tax”, such as moving Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, Burtons, Topshop brands offshore and gaining royalties on them, but paid millions of pounds in UK corporation tax instead.
He told Ms Thomson: "I left here in 1998 because of a heart scare, right and for personal reasons.
"When I left here in 1998 with my family we didn't own any businesses at all. We were business free. I went to have some time out. "When I came back here in 2000. My family and children remained out the country so investments were made from overseas. They weren't assets I took offshore. These were businesses I bought while not being resident here.
"We could have taken all the brands offshore, there could have been many many different routes if we were actually looking for a route to set up the companies to be aggressive non-taxpayers.
"And if you look over the period of time how much tax the companies have paid, I think you'll find it is pretty substantial."
Mrs Thomson replied: "You can see looking at the accounts you pay tax on your UK-based holdings, but in terms of the complexity of your corporate structure, how transparent would you consider it to be, the wider group, given the number of holdings in Jersey, in Monaco and so on? Was that something you regarded as common as well. Is it more complex than you have seen elsewhere."
Green bristled: "I don't think it is complex at all. Everybody knows the company is owned offshore. Why is that complex?"
Ms Thomson replied: "In terms of the lack of transparency of the offshore vehicles, it makes the job of tracking funds very difficult. It also makes it difficult for the pensions regulator when they don't have the transparency of where all funding is going, is that something you accept?"
He snapped: "No I don't."
Later Green said: "I have done nothing wrong. These companies could have been structured much much more aggressively and they were not.
"Everything that was made in the UK was taxed in the United Kingdom.
"As far as I am concerned I have a very clear conscience.
"Everything is clean in terms of how we operated here. When we paid money we paid tax on it."
The businessman banked the biggest pay cheque in corporate history in 2005 when his Arcadia fashion business, which owns Topshop, paid a £1.2bn dividend. The record-breaking payment went to his wife, Tina, who lives in Monaco and is the direct owner of Arcadia. Because of this arrangement no UK income tax was due on the gain.
Tax Research UK estimated Green saved £285m by paying the dividend to his wife.
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