Oh no, not ANOTHER morally bankrupt Tory.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/18/treasury-minister-andrea-leadsom-tax-arrangements.

It just goes on and on.

" New Treasury minister
faces questions over tax
arrangements
Andrea Leadsom has held properties
in a company rather than in her own
name and made use of offshore
banking services
Andrea Leadsom, the new Treasury
minister. Photograph: Richard Gardner/Rex
Features
Rowena Mason , political correspondent
Friday 18 April 2014 18.50 BST
The new Tory Treasury minister
Andrea Leadsom has insisted she
received no tax advantages from
making use of offshore banking
services, holding properties through
a company rather than in her name
and creating trusts for her children.
The moves are legal but Labour has
raised "serious questions" about
Leadsom's tax arrangements, calling
on her to explain whether she had a
lower liability as a result, especially
given George Osborne's suggestion
that complicated avoidance measures
are morally unacceptable.
The controversy arose after it
emerged that Leadsom, a former
Barclays banker, created a property
company called Bandal with her
husband in 2003 to take ownership
of two buy-to-let properties.
This is a structure that can have tax
advantages because it means the
owner pays lower-rate corporation
tax, rather than income tax, on
earnings from the properties,
although she would also at some
point have to pay tax on any
dividends drawn.
Some of the shares in the company
were registered to children's
settlement trusts in 2005, a year
before a crackdown by Gordon
Brown that meant any new assets
put into trusts from then on would be
subject to inheritance tax or high
charges.
A debt charge on Bandal was
registered to Jersey-based Kleinwort
Benson (Channel Islands) Ltd, an
offshore banking centre, according to
documents from 2006. This appears
to have been switched to the London
branch of the bank more recently.
Leadsom, who was elected MP for
Northamptonshire South in 2010,
stepped down as a director of the
family company in February to be
replaced by her 18-year-old son.
This was shortly before she was
made economic secretary to the
Treasury with responsibility for the
multibillion-pound help-to-buy
scheme, in a reshuffle prompted by
the resignation of Maria Miller as
culture secretary.
However, a spokesman for Leadsom
insisted there "is not, nor has there
been any tax advantage whatsoever"
from the arrangements.
"This is a completely UK company
that is eligible for UK tax on all
profits. There is no offshore element
and no tax avoidance," the
spokesman said, while confirming
that Leadsom has always been
resident in the UK for tax purposes.
The Treasury had no comment to
make.
In a speech this month, the
chancellor, was highly critical of
offshore banking. He has previously
worked on international efforts to
bring transparency to tax havens. "A
very important part of our economic
plan is that everyone makes a fair
contribution. The message is very
simple – if you're hiding your money
offshore, we are coming to get you,"
Osborne said.
Shabana Mahmood, a shadow
Treasury minister, said Leadsom
"urgently needs to explain these
arrangements and why they were
put in place. Most importantly, she
needs to explain whether she has
benefited from a lower tax liability
as a result.
"Families are £1,600 a year worse off
since 2010 and the government's top-
rate tax cut has seen millionaires
£100,000 a year better off.
"The amount of uncollected tax has
increased by £1bn this year and
whilst George Osborne claims to be
tackling tax avoidance, his deal with
Switzerland raised less than a third
the amount he originally claimed it
would.
"So the public are rightly angry when
the tax system is manipulated by
those with the money to do so.
Ministers responsible for this state of
affairs must themselves be above
board and seen to be above board, so
it would seem there are serious
questions to answer here."
Lord Oakeshott, a former Liberal
Democrat Treasury spokesman, said
he was surprised that Leadsom "had
loans from banks in the Channel
Islands while she was an MP" and
added: "I can see why she would
have wanted to clean all that up
before becoming a Treasury
minister."