Shareholder in Celtic caught up in tax haven row
Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond’s private jet company allegedly used an offshore tax haven to avoid taxes, it has been reported.
The Irish businessman owned Execujet for eight years until he sold it in 2015.
According to reports, Execujet asked a law firm to open an Isle of Man company in 2012 to avoid Swiss taxes. Mr Desmond has denied that his former company avoided paying tax.
Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond’s exclusive private jet company allegedly used an offshore tax haven to avoid taxes, it was reported last night.
The Irish billionaire, who is the biggest single shareholder in Celtic FC, owned the Swissbased Execujet for eight years until he sold it in 2015.
According to a national broadcaster, leaked papers reveal Execujet asked a law firm to open an Isle of Man company in 2012 to avoid Swiss taxes.
Mr Desmond strongly denies that his former company avoided tax.
He said it was “tax and regulatory compliant in all jurisdictions it operated in”.
E-mails from the leak, which have been called the Paradise Papers, suggest Execujet may have avoided up to £1 million in Swiss taxes over three years. The offshore structure implemented by Appleby is legal. However, tax expert Philip Simpson QC said it seemed to be “an aggressive avoidance arrangement”.
A number of other allegations connected with the Paradise Papers were reported yesterday.
It was reported that Apple, the world’s most profitable firm, had allegedly sought to get round a 2013 crackdown on its Irish tax practices by actively shopping around for a tax haven.
The company then allegedly moved the firm holding most of its untaxed offshore cash, now $252 billion (£191bn), to the Channel Island of Jersey.
Apple said the new structure had not lowered its taxes.
The company said it was the world’s largest taxpayer and that it had paid about $35bn (£26bn) in corporation tax over the past three years.
It said it had followed the law and that its changes “did not reduce our tax payments in any country”.
It was also reported yesterday that Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, one of the world’s richest sports people, used an Isle of Man scheme to avoid paying European taxes on his private jet. The scheme is to be investigated by HM Revenue and Customs, according to a national newspaper.