The Tony Blair Tax Mystery | KinsellaTax Investigations

Jan. 24, 2012 - PRLog -- The former Prime Minister earned a reported £12m last year; a £3.5m rise on £8.5m declared the year previous, from Windrush Ventures, one of many companies and partnerships Tony Blair is in charge of.

The question in the limelight is why did Tony Blair only have to pay HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) £315,000 in tax on those earnings?

It has been reported that £11m of the £12m earned was written off as ‘administrative expenses’, a claim which dramatically reduced the tax bill.

After the £11m of ‘administrative expenses’ was deducted from Windrush Venture’s £12m turnover, ex-Prime Minister Blair paid 28% in corporation tax totalling £315,000.

Of the claimed ‘administrative expenses’ of £11m, £300,000 was spent on office equipment, £550,000 on renting offices situated in Grosvenor Square, Central London and £2.3m was declared for company salaries; leaving around £8m of ‘administrative expenses’ unaccounted for.

The Mail Online also reported that Tony Blair has created a large ‘network of companies’ in order to keep his full income a secret and to avoid ‘publishing full accounts for all his commercial ventures’.

A spokesman for Tony Blair, said:

“Tony Blair continues to be a UK taxpayer on all of his income worldwide. There are more than 120 people working on all his activities around the world. His companies are all UK registered for tax purposes and the corporate structure has nothing to do with tax arrangements, but is simply to effectively administer his activities.

“These figures are not his earnings from Windrush but are the costs of all that Tony Blair does through Windrush. The Windrush accounts are prepared in accordance with the relevant legal, accounting and regulatory guidance.”

Tony Blair is said to receive earnings through a number of deals with foreign companies, his pension from acting as former Prime Minister, speaking at after-dinner events, consulting with foreign governments and banks as well as police protection that is funded by taxpayers’ money – another fringe benefit Blair receives as ex-Prime Minister.

Kevin Kinsella, of KinsellaTax Investigations, said:

“Tony Blair is entitled to take advantage of the tax system as it is. I did not vote for Blair but thousands did and he was voted Prime Minister on three occasions. He is entitled to take advantage of that as footballers have careers after playing as commentators.”

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