Overseas Territories: Tax Transparency

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. This is the third time for me this afternoon, but the first time for you—we wish you well in the job you have been elevated to. I thank the hon. Member for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell) for highting the concerns. I say well done on his speech and introduction to the subject matter; we do not hear enough about it in this House, but today gives us an opportunity.

I have been incredibly interested in the hon. Member’s goal to rid the UK of so-called dirty money. In Northern Ireland we have had more than our share of that, of course, through the paramilitary organisations—on both sides of the community, by the way. I remember a case that “Panorama” covered. Dirty money went from Estonia and Poland to the UK and then to Northern Ireland. That money flowed in either direction.

There is estimated to be at least £1.5 billion of UK property owned by Russians accused of financial crime or with links to the Kremlin. Along with others in this House—I can think of someone not too far away—I have already been sanctioned by the Russians. It is almost a badge of honour. I can be free with my words; I am not worried what they say about me. I think we should seize their properties, sell them and use the money to fund the needy in our palliative care units, or to build special education units throughout the UK—anything other than allow our nation to be used in such despicable ways.

I will come back to the point of the debate, which is the need to ensure that overseas tax havens are not providing more scope for tax evasion, or worse, for scurrilous, illegal behaviour. Sometimes it frustrates me, Mr Turner—I suspect it frustrates you every bit as much —when HMRC pursues someone for a slight overpayment or underpayment of tax, yet we have guys sucking away hundreds of millions of pounds and not a word about it.

Just last week I had a constituent in my office with his HMRC tax bill. He owed just over £500 in tax, and part of the reason was that he had not reckoned on the fact that the savings that he and his wife put aside for their pension, as they do not have private pensions, are being taxed. He said to me, “How do I get my hands on one of those foreign tax havens? The Government are taxing the money that I have saved for my future after they have taxed it before it goes into the bank account.” We all smiled—I know he does not mean it because I know him well—but the fact is that there are those who can use accounts in overseas territories to avoid taxes while hard-working middle-class families must pay twice on their income.

Members can understand my frustration on behalf of my constituents whenever they are getting squeezed by HMRC. It is not that we are against paying tax—we pay the tax; that is the way it is—but that we see others blatantly abusing the system. Unfortunately, our British overseas territories have become tax havens to which the money is siphoned off to avoid tax. There is something wrong with that scenario.

I realise that other hon. Members want to speak, so I will finish with this point: it is despicable that overseas territories act as jurisdictions of secrecy because they do not have strong financial reporting rules. I very much look forward to what the Minister will say: he is a good Minister with an understanding of the issues and of these broken questions that I ask him. Others will ask them much more expertly than I can; I just want clarity and transparency, and I want to see those who do wrong held accountable. As a Christian, I know that those who do wrong in this world will be accountable in the next world to God himself, but there is something wrong in this world if they are not accountable under the systems that we have laid down.

People do not have to declare where their money comes from. That has to change, not only for the sake of our constituents, but to ensure justice for all. To those who use the overseas territories to avoid the taxes they should pay, I say, “Your time has come.” I want to see what the Minister can do about that. How many times will working families be taxed while others with more money pay less because of loopholes?

I very much support the hon. Member for Kensington and Bayswater in his fight, and I look forward to hearing from the Minister. I also look forward to hearing from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier). He is a man of integrity, and he is always there to uphold the issues that we bring forward.