Gordon Brown's Chancellory Site Promotes UK for Tax Evasion

May 14, 2007 (EIRNS)--British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, now in line to replace Tony Blair as Prime Minister in late June, has, during his ten years at the Chancellory, developed a notorious reputation among opponents of offshore tax havens and tax evasion.

Now a British government website under Brown's purview--The UK Trade and Investment website--is promoting the UK as a tax haven, by highlighting its unusually generous tax treatment of foreign residents, according to the Financial Times . These "non-domiciled" residents--oftentimes wealthy individuals, born outside the UK, who have been living in Britain for many years--escape taxes by listing their "work" as done in another country, or in some offshore center. Hedge funds, for example, who have such non-domiciled residents as partners, can shield profits from taxation in that way.

The Financial Times brings up another sore point: the non-domiciled status of some very big political donors during the Blair prime ministership; and the prominence of wealthy foreigners in league tables of the UK's richest people.