The ancient non-domicile tax rule, can allow foreign business people living in Britain to avoid paying income or CGT on their earnings abroad by claiming that the UK is their second home. At the time of multi-billionaire Lakshmi Mittal’s 2002 donation of £125,000 to Labour he had lived in the UK with his family for seven years and claimed this status throughout that time. In 1997 Labour came to power claiming it would close the non-domicile "loophole". In a letter that disgraced the UK (and whose contents Downing Street refused to disclose) Tony Blair wrote a forceful letter to the Romanian Prime Minister that helped Mittal secure a £300m steel company. In the letter, Blair stated that Mittal’s company is British. In fact, Mittal's parent company LNM Holdings is based in a Caribbean tax haven - the Dutch Antilles. Blair also got his facts wrong when he addressed MPs. Note – I could go on to describe the cheap loans organised at the British taxpayer’s expense. The whole saga was a disgrace.
Donations Continue
The recent £2m donation by Mittal which brings the running total up to £4m in the last 3 years is posited as one of the major reasons for Gordon’s recent visit to India. The Labour Party was badly underpaid for their generosity the first time around, but will there be new favours for Mittal on the back of this financial lifeline? Whatever the case, it brings British democracy into disrepute - and is a case in point for why political funding needs reform. Meanwhile, an embattled Luke Akehurst (not the spoof!) suggests Mittal deserves a lordship.
In other news, earlier this week, the Czech Finance Ministry
cancelled a $110m fine on Mittal Steel for price-fixing.
4 comments:
"All the times on this blog are wrong" (Re mutleythedogsdayout.blogspot.com)
Yes, they are - its quite easy to mes up all the times on a blog should you find things like that amusing. At the moment every posts all night and sleeps all day - which is funny in itself.
Why do you insist on referring to the s**tbag who impersonates me as the genuine article and me as "the spoof"?
And how can you possibly go on about something as trivial as Mittal and his measly donation when that little Tory creep Yates has left his wine lodge yet again to arrest Abe for a second time? Where will this all end?
Do these traitors not realise that in just 91 days, 3 hours and 21 minutes from now The Great Leader will have exceeded Thatcher's period in office and will be able to pack quickly and make a break for the US, from where the probability of extradition is zero.
94 days according to my blog clock actually Luke.
PT - Please don't go on about the need for reform. The parties are listening and want to take more of my hard earned cash directly. I would rather Mittal paid, he is rich.
I don't care about the factory in Romania. it is probably better of in Mittal's hands anyway. If they can't get money from them then Blair will come to me. I don't want that, I am struggling enough as it is.
I would rather that all this giving is seen as Philanthropy.
I'm definitely opposed to the taxpayer paying, too, but I'm also against situations where it seems like the usual democratic process is short-circuited by party contributions. The limit on individual donations seems reasonable.
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