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Another Hypocrite Labour Grandee
30 Answers
Margaret Hodge, who savages tax avoiders as the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee found to be avoiding tax!!
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This is also the woman who turned a blind eye to child abuse at Harringay council.
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This is also the woman who turned a blind eye to child abuse at Harringay council.
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Answers
She hasn’t committed a crime. //Ms Hodge became one of the UK’s best known politicians in the last parliament by denouncing businesses and individuals over their tax arrangements
06:18 Fri 01st May 2015
The shares were moved to Liechtenstein from Germany during the second world war before Margaret Hodge was even born. I am not sure you can avoid tax before you even come into this world.
The fund was wound up, (it is not alleged that Hodge closed it) and her proceeds were brought back into the country, legally and she paid tax on it.
So she has done nothing wrong and did not instigate putting the funds off-shore to avoid tax.
Much ado about nothing it seems.
The fund was wound up, (it is not alleged that Hodge closed it) and her proceeds were brought back into the country, legally and she paid tax on it.
So she has done nothing wrong and did not instigate putting the funds off-shore to avoid tax.
Much ado about nothing it seems.
The fundst in Liechtenstein was not set up to avoid tax, it was set up to stop the Nazis stealing it.
Margaret Hodge's family was Jewish and they lived in Stuttgart in Germany in the 1930s. The were forced to move because of the rise of the Nazis, and their money was moved to Liechtenstein. The family went to live in Egypt, where Hodge was born.
I realise truth goes out of the window during election time, but this is really scraping the barrel.
Margaret Hodge's family was Jewish and they lived in Stuttgart in Germany in the 1930s. The were forced to move because of the rise of the Nazis, and their money was moved to Liechtenstein. The family went to live in Egypt, where Hodge was born.
I realise truth goes out of the window during election time, but this is really scraping the barrel.
Gromit, it doesn’t appear to be quite as simple as that – or as heart-wrenching.
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Nothing illegal has been done because as Mr Balls has said, she has paid the ‘appropriate tax’, but isn’t this the sort of thing that Ed is determined to address?
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Nothing illegal has been done because as Mr Balls has said, she has paid the ‘appropriate tax’, but isn’t this the sort of thing that Ed is determined to address?
Gromit, I don’t know which bits you’ll think are good so I’ll post the full article. I’m not sure how much we can put in one post, so I’ll spit it up.
//A prominent Labour politician and a fierce critic of tax avoidance has been accused of hypocrisy after receiving shares in a family company from a foundation based in a tax haven.
Margaret Hodge, former head of Britain’s parliamentary public accounts committee, was among the beneficiaries in 2011 of the winding-up of a Liechtenstein foundation that held shares in Stemcor, the private steel-trading business set up by Hans Oppenheimer, her father.
The shares were brought onshore using a scheme, known as the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility, that offered reduced penalties and no risk of prosecution for Britons moving undeclared assets back to the UK.
Ms Hodge said she had not been a beneficiary of the Liechtenstein foundation until the shares were brought onshore using the LDF in 2011, and that she had not played a role in setting up or running it.
But the disclosure, reported by The Times, has exposed her to charges of hypocrisy. At issue is whether she should have been more transparent and made a public statement about her interest sooner.
Ms Hodge became one of the UK’s best known politicians in the last parliament by denouncing businesses and individuals over their tax arrangements, and criticising Revenue & Customs for its handling of avoidance. But she has previously made no public statement about the use of offshore vehicles or the LDF associated with the family shareholdings.
Her committee has been particularly critical of the lenient terms offered by the LDF, not least last month during its investigation into alleged tax evasion by clients of HSBC’s Swiss bank.//
//A prominent Labour politician and a fierce critic of tax avoidance has been accused of hypocrisy after receiving shares in a family company from a foundation based in a tax haven.
Margaret Hodge, former head of Britain’s parliamentary public accounts committee, was among the beneficiaries in 2011 of the winding-up of a Liechtenstein foundation that held shares in Stemcor, the private steel-trading business set up by Hans Oppenheimer, her father.
The shares were brought onshore using a scheme, known as the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility, that offered reduced penalties and no risk of prosecution for Britons moving undeclared assets back to the UK.
Ms Hodge said she had not been a beneficiary of the Liechtenstein foundation until the shares were brought onshore using the LDF in 2011, and that she had not played a role in setting up or running it.
But the disclosure, reported by The Times, has exposed her to charges of hypocrisy. At issue is whether she should have been more transparent and made a public statement about her interest sooner.
Ms Hodge became one of the UK’s best known politicians in the last parliament by denouncing businesses and individuals over their tax arrangements, and criticising Revenue & Customs for its handling of avoidance. But she has previously made no public statement about the use of offshore vehicles or the LDF associated with the family shareholdings.
Her committee has been particularly critical of the lenient terms offered by the LDF, not least last month during its investigation into alleged tax evasion by clients of HSBC’s Swiss bank.//
//A committee report said: “We are concerned that the current system still causes the odds to be stacked in favour of tax evaders using offshore accounts when the worst that will happen if they are caught is that they will pay the tax they owe and a fine.”
Ms Hodge is expected to seek re-election to the PAC post if the Conservatives win next month’s general election. But if Labour wins on May 7 the chairmanship would switch to a Tory MP under House of Commons rules.
Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, leapt to the defence of Ms Hodge. “These were shares which were transferred by her family out of Germany before the second world war,” he said. “Margaret has brought these shares onshore and paid the appropriate tax. I think she has done the right thing.”
The Conservative party said: “It’s for Margaret Hodge to justify her own tax arrangements.”
The Times also reported that three-quarters of the shares in the family’s Liechtenstein trust had previously been held in Panama, which Ms Hodge described last month as “one of the most secretive jurisdictions” with “the least protection anywhere in the world against money-laundering”.
In a statement, Ms Hodge said: “The Link Steel Foundation was set up in 1970 by members of my extended family, Jewish refugees who fled Austria and Germany for France and the United States. I had no role in setting it up or running it, and was not a beneficiary of the foundation until 2011, when the shares were brought onshore via the LDF, ending the structure my relatives created. At that point I then inherited additional UK shares in Stemcor. I was of course aware of this transfer and the increase in my shareholding.//
Ms Hodge is expected to seek re-election to the PAC post if the Conservatives win next month’s general election. But if Labour wins on May 7 the chairmanship would switch to a Tory MP under House of Commons rules.
Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, leapt to the defence of Ms Hodge. “These were shares which were transferred by her family out of Germany before the second world war,” he said. “Margaret has brought these shares onshore and paid the appropriate tax. I think she has done the right thing.”
The Conservative party said: “It’s for Margaret Hodge to justify her own tax arrangements.”
The Times also reported that three-quarters of the shares in the family’s Liechtenstein trust had previously been held in Panama, which Ms Hodge described last month as “one of the most secretive jurisdictions” with “the least protection anywhere in the world against money-laundering”.
In a statement, Ms Hodge said: “The Link Steel Foundation was set up in 1970 by members of my extended family, Jewish refugees who fled Austria and Germany for France and the United States. I had no role in setting it up or running it, and was not a beneficiary of the foundation until 2011, when the shares were brought onshore via the LDF, ending the structure my relatives created. At that point I then inherited additional UK shares in Stemcor. I was of course aware of this transfer and the increase in my shareholding.//
//“Stemcor is a family company and I have always fully declared my shareholdings. I have never held an executive or non-executive role and therefore have not had any role in the company.
“As a shareholder I have on a number of occasions sought and received assurances from the executive that the company always paid the appropriate tax.
“All I could do as a shareholder in a company not run by me, and over which I had no influence or control, was to ensure that any shares I held were above board and that I paid all relevant taxes in full. Every time I received any benefit from the company this happened.”
Liechtenstein was one of the most secretive tax havens until a tax evasion scandal following the theft of bank data and under intense pressure from its neighbours, it renounced bank secrecy. In 2008 it negotiated a deal with the UK, under which it would close the accounts of bank customers who did not come clean, in return for the introduction of a partial amnesty for individuals who wanted to put their affairs in order.
Jason Collins, tax partner at Pinsent Masons, international law firm said the fact the shares in Stemcor were brought onshore using the LDF suggested the structure that held them was not tax-compliant. “You would only use the LDF if you had a historic tax problem.”
He said he had “a fair amount of sympathy” for Ms Hodge’s position but said she should have used the example to bolster her attack on avoidance. “She could have said ‘my family has regularised complex positions and others should do the same’.”
Filings at Companies House show that until 2011, the Link Steel Foundation, based in Liechtenstein, owned nearly 480,000 shares in Stemcor, about 6.3 per cent of the total. At the end of 2011 the company had net assets of £273m.
But the company, one of the world’s largest steel traders, hit problems after falling steel prices damaged the profitability of the low-margin business. It restructured its $1.3bn debt in March 2014 after defaulting on a $850m loan the previous year. Accounts for the year to December 2013, the most recent available, showed net liabilities of £72.6m.
Stemcor was originally set up in 1951 as a joint venture between a German company and Mr Oppenheimer. He had four daughters including Ms Hodge and a son, Ralph Oppenheimer, and died in 1985. //
The end.
“As a shareholder I have on a number of occasions sought and received assurances from the executive that the company always paid the appropriate tax.
“All I could do as a shareholder in a company not run by me, and over which I had no influence or control, was to ensure that any shares I held were above board and that I paid all relevant taxes in full. Every time I received any benefit from the company this happened.”
Liechtenstein was one of the most secretive tax havens until a tax evasion scandal following the theft of bank data and under intense pressure from its neighbours, it renounced bank secrecy. In 2008 it negotiated a deal with the UK, under which it would close the accounts of bank customers who did not come clean, in return for the introduction of a partial amnesty for individuals who wanted to put their affairs in order.
Jason Collins, tax partner at Pinsent Masons, international law firm said the fact the shares in Stemcor were brought onshore using the LDF suggested the structure that held them was not tax-compliant. “You would only use the LDF if you had a historic tax problem.”
He said he had “a fair amount of sympathy” for Ms Hodge’s position but said she should have used the example to bolster her attack on avoidance. “She could have said ‘my family has regularised complex positions and others should do the same’.”
Filings at Companies House show that until 2011, the Link Steel Foundation, based in Liechtenstein, owned nearly 480,000 shares in Stemcor, about 6.3 per cent of the total. At the end of 2011 the company had net assets of £273m.
But the company, one of the world’s largest steel traders, hit problems after falling steel prices damaged the profitability of the low-margin business. It restructured its $1.3bn debt in March 2014 after defaulting on a $850m loan the previous year. Accounts for the year to December 2013, the most recent available, showed net liabilities of £72.6m.
Stemcor was originally set up in 1951 as a joint venture between a German company and Mr Oppenheimer. He had four daughters including Ms Hodge and a son, Ralph Oppenheimer, and died in 1985. //
The end.
Great, thanks Naomi. More info to substantiate what I said and shoots down Gromit's version. The company also had Panama involvement, very dodgy, and was not set up during the war to safeguard it from the Nazis. Stem or was set up in 1951. The only reason the shares were transferred here in 2011 was because of an amnesty between UK and Lichtenstein which allowed this to happen without criminal charges.
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