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A group of MPs is urging HMRC to investigate Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s alleged £1bn unpaid tax. In a letter to HMRC, Joe Powell, the leader of a Parliamentary group on fair taxation, requests that the department investigates Abramovich following BBC reports that have raised questions on whether tax is due on offshore investments. The letter calls on HMRC to investigate and reclaim any funds potentially owed by Abramovich to the UK tax authorities. Abramovich’s lawyers have claimed that he “always obtained independent expert professional tax and legal advice” and “acted in accordance with that advice”.
Leaked papers suggest that investments totalling $6bn (£4.7bn) made by Abramovich were routed through companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) but were managed from the UK so should have been subject to tax. The BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have spent over a year examining thousands of files and emails from a Cypriot-based company that administered Abramovich’s worldwide business empire. The BBC and partners have been reporting on the leaked files since 2023 as part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Cyprus Confidential investigation.
Individuals and businesses legally avoid paying tax on their profits frequently, by making investments from companies in tax havens. However, these companies involved must be controlled and managed offshore, where they are incorporated, otherwise their investments’ profits could be taxed as if it were a UK company. The leaked documents seen by the BBC reveal the BVI investment companies’ directors handed sweeping powers over them to Abramovich’s friend, Eugene Shvidler, which allowed him “full power to do everything and anything” to investment companies in the BVI. According to lawyers representing Shvidler, the structure of the investments was the subject of “very careful and detailed tax planning undertaken and advised on by leading tax advisors”.
HMRC said that it was committed to making certain that everyone pays the correct tax under the law, regardless of wealth or status. According to Powell’s letter, the findings from BBC, TBIJ and The Guardian suggest that there are serious questions about Abramovich’s possible tax liabilities and public funds that must be recovered to manage the national debt and ensure the required funding for public services’ smooth functioning
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