House of Commons
Parliament

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable asks what action will be taken in British overseas territories to tackle tax regimes which are detrimental to the UK.

Treasury Minister Mel Stride says discussions with those countries are ongoing but "we need to strike an appropriate balance between very important services" and the collection of taxes.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Dame Margaret Hodge calls for the "simple" step of introducing a register of beneficial ownership for British overseas territories and crown dependencies.

Treasury Minister Mel Stride responds that the government has made "a great deal of progress on common reporting standards" and a register is accessible by HMRC.

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Stewart Hosie argues that the fact that the use of offshore tax havens is not illegal is "precisely the problem" and pushes for a register of beneficial ownership.

Treasury Minister Mel Stride insists the government is "at the forefront" of tackling tax avoidance and evasion.

House of Commons
Parliament

More from the House of Commons: Conservative Peter Bone says the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell does not know the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion.

"Evasion is wholly illegal, avoidance is normal," Mr Bone says, to uproar, going on to suggest that anyone investing in an ISA is engaged in tax avoidance.

It is a "a moral issue", he adds, alleging that the Labour Party is paying "a million pounds a year in rent" for an office owned by an overseas trust.

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has asked an urgent question on the revelations about the use of offshore tax havens which have been leaked in the Paradise Papers.

Mr McDonnell asked what the government is doing to curb aggressive tax avoidance scheme.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mel Stride said the government is committed to a "fair tax system where everyone plays by the rules" and has gathered £160bn in compliance revenue since 2010.

He accused Labour of making "general aspersions" where there is no evidence of law-breaking and says the government requested sight of the papers in October but did not receive it.

UK tax authority HMRC requested access to the papers two weeks ago, according to HMRC permanent secretary John Thompson.

Evening Standard

George Osborne, the former chancellor turned editor of the Evening Standard, has used the newspaper's editorial, external today to warn against what he describes as equating offshore investments with criminal behaviour.

"Yes, people - rich and otherwise - break the law and don't pay the taxes that are due. But the weapons available to those trying to catch them are much more powerful than they used to be.

"We should not equate anyone who has financial investments overseas with criminals. If we do, then, rather than lamenting the collapse of trust in the institutions and rules that secure our freedom we will be contributing to that collapse."

The editorial also defended Mr Osborne's government's record on combating legal tax avoidance.

"You can no longer easily hide your money from the taxman in an offshore bank account

"That is because at the G8 in 2013, Britain led the way in getting 90 countries - including the Jerseys and Cayman Islands of this world - to agree to share automatically the details of these bank accounts with the relevant tax authorities.

"Britain has also been at the forefront in Europe of ensuring that information on who ultimately owns companies and trusts is internationally available to tax and law enforcement agencies; and it is important the pressure is maintained to make that too a global standard."

Among the Paradise Papers documents was evidence that Lord Ashcroft remained a non-dom and continued to avoid tax, despite a widespread belief that he had given up the status, and attempts by Parliament to make peers pay their full share.

He has just published a statement in response to reporting by the BBC's Panorama team. He ignored repeated questions from a Panorama reporter who approached him for comment, before shaking him off by going into a toilet. He says here he was "determined... not to fall victim to their ambush, hence the rather erratic and undignified withdrawal".

And in case you want to watch the clip of Jeremy Corbyn's answer on £10m of the Queen's private estate being invested offshore, here it is.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared to suggest earlier that the Queen should apologise over the revelation that £10m ($13m) of her private money was invested offshore, before his team rowed back, saying that wasn't what he meant.

BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg parses his comments.

European Economics Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici has denounced the tax avoidance detailed in papers as "shocking" and called for a blacklist.

"This new scandal shows once again that some companies and rich individuals are ready to do anything to not pay tax," said Mr Moscovici.

"In light of these shocking revelations, I call on member states to rapidly adopt a European tax haven blacklist, as well as other dissuasive measures."

His remarks come ahead of scheduled talks between EU finance ministers on Tuesday, at which the Paradise Papers will be discussed.

Image source, EPA

The general secretary of Unite, Britain's biggest union, said taxpayers "will be furious" at the revelations in the Paradise Papers.

In a statement, Len McCluskey said: “These tax avoidance schemes may be legal, but there is deep anger and disgust about the ‘them and us’ attitude to paying tax revealed in the ‘Paradise Papers’.

“The prime minister’s refusal this morning to commit to introducing a public register of who owns offshore companies and trusts in British tax havens or to opening a public inquiry into tax avoidance is to be strongly deplored.

“Those struggling to put food on the table for their families and to pay their mortgages and rents are expected to pay every penny of tax on the dot, but there is a parallel financial universe for the global elite, using fancy accounting instruments and legal wheezes, to protect their mountains of cash from the taxman.

“Money clawed back from tax avoidance schemes could pay for much needed new schools, a massive cash injection in the NHS and public investment in house building and infrastructure projects."

He backed Labour's call for a full public inquiry into tax avoidance and for a full register into all companies and trusts.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Murray Worthy from international campaign group Global Witness has called the Paradise Papers coverage "hugely important".

"Bermuda is one of the UK's overseas territories, one of the UK's overseas tax havens essentially, and these are really at the heart of these Paradise Papers - these hidden, anonymous companies enabling tax avoidance, tax evasion," he said.

"So it's vital that we get to know who's behind these companies. And the best way to do that is through making that ownership information public".

Earlier, on the BBC's Today programme, the premier of Bermuda David Burt said his country had a "robust regulatory regime" and it had had the same tax system since 1898. He added the UK's tax law allowed the use of offshore tax havens.

The offshore financial affairs of hundreds of politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals, some of them household names, have been revealed in a leak of 13.4 million documents.

The papers throw light on the legal firms, financial institutions and accountants working in the sector and on the jurisdictions that adopt offshore tax rules to attract money.

Here are the BBC's top stories so far:

• The Queen's private estate invested about £10m offshore including a small amount in the company behind BrightHouse, a chain accused of irresponsible lending
• One of President Donald Trump's top administration officials kept a financial stake in a firm whose major partners include a Russian company part-owned by President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law. He says there was "nothing improper" about his business links

• How three stars of the hit BBC sitcom, Mrs Brown's Boys, diverted more than £2m into an offshore tax-avoidance scheme
• A key aide of Canada's PM has been linked to offshore schemes that may have cost the nation millions of dollars in taxes, threatening to embarrass Justin Trudeau, who has campaigned to shut tax havens
• Lord Ashcroft, a former Conservative party deputy chairman and a significant donor, may have broken the rules around how his offshore investments were managed. Other papers suggest he retained his non-dom tax status while in the House of Lords, despite claiming to have become resident in the UK
• How questions were raised about who is controlling Everton FC
• An oligarch with close links to the Kremlin may have secretly taken ownership of a company responsible for anti-money laundering checks on Russian cash.

Here are three of our explainers on this story, telling you more about what the Paradise Papers leak is and what it means.

• Everything you need to know about the leak
• How to hide your cash offshore
• Are we taming offshore finance?

India's main opposition Congress party has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take action against those who have invested in offshore companies.

The Paradise Papers show that more than 700 Indians invested large amounts of cash in offshore tax havens, including a junior minister and an MP from the governing BJP party.

The minister, Jayant Sinha, has denied any wrongdoing. The MP Ravindra Kishore Sinha said he could not comment as he had taken a vow of silence this week as part of a religious practice.

The chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, Labour MP Meg Hillier, told the BBC that the government needed the tax money that is being dodged.

"I just don't understand why people may go to such lengths to set up complicated tax arrangements to avoid paying tax in real time," she said.

"Even if they say they're going to pay it at a later date, we need that money now and what's the issue? And sometimes these sums of money that we are talking about is plenty of money, people can certainly live on that and even if they were paying tax on that, they would be earning a lot more than most of my constituents."

In official guidance, external issued in 2016, HMRC said it would investigate and challenge the kind of schemes used by the Mrs Brown's Boys actors to dodge tax.

"Scheme promoters will tell you that the payment is non-taxable, because it's a loan and doesn't count as income," the authority said at the time.

"In reality, you don't pay the loan back, so it's no different to normal income and is taxable. So if you're using one of these schemes and being paid this way, you're highly likely to be avoiding tax."

HMRC has the power to send people using these sorts of schemes "accelerated payment notices", which require them to repay the tax immediately while their case is investigated.

Image source, Getty Images

Ana Caistor Arendar, Oxfam's Head of Inequality, says: "This is yet another stark reminder that, when it comes to tax, too many big companies and wealthy individuals play by different rules to the rest of us.

"There's an often overlooked but very real human cost to tax avoidance - it deprives poor countries of billions each year needed for life-saving healthcare and life-changing education."

The BBC's Panorama programme attempted to speak to Fiona Delany, one of the three sitcom actors involved in the scheme.