Javid ‘failed to declare his offshore trust links’
SAJID Javid did not declare using an offshore trust while he was working at the Treasury, it has been reported.
It comes after the former Chancellor was revealed to have enjoyed non-dom status before entering politics, and had an offshore trust – thought to have been located in a tax haven.
While the now-Health Secretary gave up his non-dom status in 2009, before entering politics, he retained the trust until 2012, by which time he was an aide to George Osborne.
MPs must reveal major shareholdings but they are not required to say where they are held.
Javid did declare shares in Deutsche Bank, his former employer, in the 2011 register of members’ interests.
But when approached about them by a newspaper, a spokesman declined to say whether the trust included these shares as well as other assets, including other shares.
He also declined to say whether it was a blind trust or where it was located.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Javid, who says he has fully declared everything necessary to Parliament and tax officials.
When he shut down the trust in 2012, Javid insists he incurred a 50 per cent tax rate, which he claimed had offset any “accrued benefit” from it.
A spokesman for Javid said: “Sajid has been very open and transparent about his previous tax status in the UK and when he lived abroad.”
But Labour MP James Murray said it was “rank hypocrisy” for senior ministers to defend a tax hike this month when they had used beneficial tax arrangements themselves.