GRAHAM HISCOTT Osborne firm tax wipeout Losses reduced corporation bill to zero

GEORGE Osborne’s family firm has paid no UK corporation tax for nine of the past 10 years.

Wallpaper business Osborne and Little, owned by the former Tory Chancellor’s dad, has paid just £12,000 in corporation tax since 2009.

During that time the luxury finishing company has raked in more than £330million in sales.

However, the company was legitimately able to use losses in several years to offset profits in others to reduce its corporation tax bill overall.

The latest accounts for Osborne and Little show it lost £350,000 in the last financial year. That included losses from the ongoing weakness of the pound against the dollar.

Osborne and Little locked itself into currency exchange contracts before the 2016 referendum vote, but lost out after the pound dropped.

The company suffered £48,000 of “hedging losses” last year, albeit less than £855,000 hit in the previous 12 months.

Sales fell 5% last year, the latest accounts filed at Companies House show. Takings in the US, which makes up half its trade, fell 2%. However, sales in the UK tumbled 12% to £6.2m, with the company blaming it in part on “uncertainty in the economic climate” in the run-up to Brexit next March. George Osborne, who currently has seven jobs – including editor of the London Evening Standard – has no involvement in the running of firm but is believed to have a small stake in it.

The Spice Girls were just the ticket for some firms last month.Ticket sales jumped 30% in November – a four-year high – as their reunion tour was launched, and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald proved a hit at the cinema.But the cold snap couldn’t spice up sales for fashion chains, with spending falling 2.9%.Consumer spending overall slowed to an eight-month low of 3.3%, according to card payment giant Barclaycard.

Shares in travel giantThomas Cook slumped for the fifth day in a row£100million was yesterday. Another as market value wiped off its stock dived 21%. The its share price been under company has announcing pressure since annual a sharp fall in profits.

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