Ashcroft estimated to have saved £127m in tax - Huhne

12.00.00pm GMT Tue 2nd Mar 2010

Lord Ashcroft is estimated to have saved more than £127m in British tax since he became a member of the House of Lords, according to Liberal Democrat research.

Lord Ashcroft's annual tax saving is conservatively estimated to be £12.76m and he has been a member of the House of Lords for a decade.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"Anyone who wants to pass laws in this country should pay this country's full taxes and not hide behind the special offshore status of non-doms.

"Non-doms have to tell the taxman that their first allegiance is to another country. No-one should be a British lawmaker whose first allegiance is not to Britain.

"On even the most conservative estimates, Lord Ashcroft has avoided vast amounts of British tax by deploying the non-dom tax dodge. If he challenges our estimate of how much tax he has dodged, then there is a simple solution: publish the figure."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. Lord Ashcroft is estimated by the Sunday Times "Rich list" to have a fortune of £1,100 million.

2. At a conservative estimate, the financial return on Ashcroft's fortune will be 5 per cent a year or some £55m. If 80 per cent is held offshore, the tax savings are as follows, assuming that there is a split of 50/50 between Capital Gains Tax (on capital gains) and income tax (on interest, profits and dividends). There is a saving of 18 per cent CGT on £22m or £3.96m, plus a saving of 40 per cent income tax on £22m or £8.8m. The total tax saving annually is thus £12.76m.