Call for greater transparency as wealthy foreigners fork out to avoid registering London propertiesMore than 200 wealthy foreigners are choosing to pay £218200 a year in tax rather than declare which of London’s £20m-plus mega-mansions they own.
The government introduced a special annual tax on homes owned via “non-natural persons” such as offshore companies in 2013, to crack down on “dirty money” used to secretly buy up luxury homes. But figures from HM Revenue and Customs expose owners of mega-mansions are choosing to pay the annual tax rather than register their London properties under their real names. There is nothing illegal in owning a property via an offshore company.
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Source: theguardian.com