When Tony and Cheri Blair made £6.45 million. When purchased, he avoided paying £312,000 in stamp duty London Office, explosive documents surfaced last night.
The disclosure follows the leak of offshore papers that revealed hidden wealth and tax evasion by some of the world’s richest and most powerful people.
The former Labor prime minister and his barrister wife didn’t have to pay the tax bill because they bought the offshore firm that owned the property.
Mrs Blair, who runs a law firm and a women’s foundation from a four-story Victorian building, said vendors had insisted on selling the office this way.
There is nothing illegal about the transaction, but the deal highlights a loophole that helps wealthy property owners avoid paying a tax that most UK home buyers cannot avoid.
The transaction has been uncovered in a cache of 11.9 million files called the Pandora Papers, which shed light on the secret financial affairs of 35 world leaders.
The Pandora Papers were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington, which shared the documents with global media outlets including the BBC and The Guardian.
Former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair and his barrister wife Cheri (pictured together) didn’t have to pay a tax bill because they bought an offshore firm that owned the property
Documents show that Tony and Cheri Blair bought their office in Marylebone, central London, from Romanstone International Ltd., a British Virgin Islands-based company.
Leaked documents show that Blair bought the building by setting up a UK company to acquire Romanstone.
Mr and Mrs Blair in the picture, each holding a 50 per cent stake in the British company. He left the offshore company after the purchase.
Stamp duty payment of £312,000 was avoided because the company that owned the building changed hands instead of the actual ownership of the property.
No laws were broken in buying the office, but Mr Blair had previously been critical of tax loopholes, once saying ‘the tax system is a haven of scams, perks, city deals and profits’.
Mrs Blair insisted that her firm, Harcourt Ventures, was formed to bring Romanstone and its building under UK tax and regulatory regulations.
It said: ‘It is not unusual that the seller of such property in a commercial office building or corporate vehicle does not wish to dispose of the property separately.’
Blair, who spent more than £30 million on 38 residential properties before buying the office, said “acquisition of a company comes with various tax consequences” and he would certainly be liable for capital gains tax on the resale.