A LEGAL loophole that allows Scotland to act as a possible haven for tax evasion and money-laundering will be debated at Westminster, following a series of exposes in The Herald.
Roger Mullin, SNP Treasury spokesman, will formally call for a full UK Government review into Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) – off-the-shelf firms marketed widely in eastern Europe as “zero-tax Scottish offshore companies”.
The call for a review will come as an amendment to the Government’s finance bill on Monday and follows a series of Herald investigations that revealed how the Scottish-based firms were being used to launder profits from gun-running deals, vodka industry corruption in Ukraine and international diet pill scams. Mr Mullin MP, who represents Kirkcaldy, has already secured the backing of international aid charity Oxfam for his amendment amid widespread political concern that century-old legislation behind SLPs is being ritually abused.
The amendment calls on Chancellor Philip Hammond to “undertake a review of the impact of the tax regime which applies to Scottish Limited Partnerships on levels of tax avoidance and evasion by such partnerships” and report back to both Commons and Lords on the issue within six months. Scottish ministers have already written to their UK counterparts expressing concerns over SLPs, which first hit the headlines last year when it emerged they had been used in the alleged looting of $1 billion from banks in Moldova.
The Herald has recently revealed there are around 500 such businesses being incorporated each month – almost all are owned by shell companies based in traditional tax havens.
None of the 25,000 SLPs registered at Companies House has filed accounts. They do not pay tax in the UK if they do not trade here.
Head of Oxfam Scotland, Jamie Livingstone, said: “Given the clear concerns that this legal mechanism is being abused and may be helping tax dodgers, it needs closer scrutiny and much more transparency. We know that it is the poorest people around the world who lose out when governments are robbed of vital tax revenues that could be used to tackle poverty.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel