DAVID Cameron will hope to draw a line under the Panama Papers scandal by announcing plans to make financial firms criminally responsible if their staff facilitate tax evasion.
The Prime Minister faces MPs today for the first time since he confessed to having invested in an offshore trust.
He will struggle to rely on the usual support from backbenchers who are angry at the way Cameron has handled the affair. Many are also furious at Government plans to spend £9m on a pro-EU booklet to be sent to every household in the UK.
Downing Street say the legislation criminalising the firms will be contained in the Queen’s Speech in May.
In a statement, Cameron said: “This Government has done more than any other to take action against corruption in all its forms, but we will go further.
“That is why we will legislate this year to hold companies who fail to stop their employees facilitating tax evasion criminally liable.”
Cameron’s aides pointed out that the proposed legislation had come off the back of a consultation announced in March 2015, and was intended to coincide with an international anti-corruption summit in London on May 12.
The summit had been planned long before the leak of 11 million documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Cameron faced further scrutiny yesterday after he released his tax return. The document showed that the Prime Minister had a taxable income of more than £200,000 in 2014-15 and paid almost £76,000 in tax.
On top of his income as Prime Minister, he made £46,899 in the rental income on the Camerons’ family home in London. He was also gifted £200,000 in two separate payments by his mother Mary Cameron on top of the £300,000 he received in his father’s will in February 2011. As was pointed out, the sums involved are convenient as the original £300,000 bequest is below the amount where inheritance tax would have to be paid. If the sum in the will had been £500,000 the Prime Minister would have had to pay £70,000. If his mother lives until 2018, seven years after her second payment, there will be no inheritance tax to pay.
In Scotland the leaders of the SNP, Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have now all released their tax returns. The Scottish Greens told The National that they too would be following suit.
Nicola Sturgeon’s return for 2014-15 revealed she had a total income of £104,817 and was charged £32,517 in income tax.
An SNP spokesman said: “The First Minister’s only income is the salary she receives as an MSP and First Minister. Nicola Sturgeon pays tax on her full salary entitlement but only draws her salary at its 2008/09 level – the balance is automatically paid to the Scottish Government for use in general public spending.”
Willie Rennie’s papers for the same year show his income was £52,283 and he was charged £10,480.20 in income tax. The Liberal Democrat leader said: “Compared with certain other party leaders my tax returns are rather dull but here they are anyway.”
Kezia Dugdale’s documents show she had an income of £57,465 in 2014-15 and was charged £11,250.40 tax. A total of £5,242 was classified as “profit from self employment” through her column in the Daily Record. Though the Labour leader donates every penny of that to charity MND Scotland, she pays the tax on the earnings.
Ruth Davidson’s tax return revealed she earned £52,223 in 2014-15 and paid £10,513 in tax.
Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron have also promised to share their tax returns.
The National View: The PM should have come clean over his tax haven shares much sooner
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