Big companies reveal secrets of tax havens

 

Hundreds of secret tax haven subsidiaries belonging to major companies have been revealed after Financial Mail exposed widespread failures of disclosure in Companies House filings.

Villas Valriche, Mauritius

Tax holiday: Mauritius (pictured), Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands and Jersey are all used as tax havens

Fifteen companies - including Marks & Spencer and insurance giant Legal & General - have admitted that they control a total of 568 subsidiaries in secretive locations such as the Cayman Islands and Jersey.

The details emerged after the firms resubmitted a list of their subsidiaries to Companies House.

The firms acted after being contacted by Financial Mail following a complaint by charity ActionAid and after receiving letters from Companies House.

A spokeswoman for Companies House confirmed that it had contacted 49 firms in the FTSE 100 to warn that failing to disclose makes directors liable for steep fines.

Miner Anglo American is revealed as having 30 offshore subsidiaries in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) - including Ambase Exploration (Tanzania) Limited - and the same number in Luxembourg, including Anglo American Exploration Columbia Sarl. Anglo South American Investments Limited is based in Mauritius.

Retailer Burberry admits to having seven subsidiaries in Luxembourg, while technology giant Smiths Group has a subsidiary called John Crane Ireland Limited, based in the Cayman Islands.

Media giant BSkyB's subsidiary Oddschecker (Jersey) Limited is registered in the BVI.

A further 14 companies - including British Airways, cruise giant Carnival and supermarket group Morrisons - were in the process of filing disclosure of their subsidiaries or were at least looking into the issue.

A spokesman for Morrisons said: 'We have received a letter from Companies House and have already spoken to them directly. It was just an administrative error on our part that is being addressed.'

Nine companies, including drinks giant Diageo and miner Vedanta Resources, said they would address the issue, but did not then take it any further or insisted that the rules did not apply to them.

The company secretary of miner Lonmin said 'We have submitted a full list of subsidiaries in every year together with the annual return. What Companies House does with these lists I don't know, but equally don't see as my problem.'

Others, including retailer Kingfisher, Scottish & Southern Energy and leisure giant Whitbread, did not respond to Financial Mail's requests for information.

Martin Hearson, tax policy officer at ActionAid, which is dedicated to ending poverty, said: 'In the future we'd like the Government to introduce laws to make companies compile separate accounts for all the countries they work in.'

John Christensen, a director of the Tax Justice Network, said: 'There is a great step forward in corporate transparency. It is important to know who does what and where.'