Trouble for Cameron after his tax records go public

LONDON: In an unprecedented decision, David Cameron has released his tax records to defuse the growing anger over his father’s offshore business that threatened his premiership, but the bold move appears to plunge him into more trouble over 200,000 pounds he received from his mother.

Cameron released a summary of his tax returns from 2009-15, and also revealed that his mother transferred two separate payments of 100,000 pounds (collectively USD 280,000) to his accounts in 2011, allowing the family estate to avoid a potential 80,000 pounds worth of inheritance tax.

The move came a day after Cameron admitted in an emotional speech to the Conservative party’s spring conference that he “should have handled this better” and “will learn the lessons” from the row triggered by the so-called Panama Papers leak.

The accounts disclose that Cameron has declared nearly 1.1 million in earnings over the past six years and paid 400,000 pounds in income tax.

Cameron, 49, published the six years’ worth of accounts in a dossier in a bid to end speculation about his tax affairs after one of the most difficult weeks of his premiership.

The release never before done by a UK prime minister or political leader shows that his approach to his finances is not dissimilar to many other middle-class families.

However, there are further questions over a 200,000-pound gift from his mother, which is being perceived as a move to avoid inheritance tax. It emerged that his mother transferred two separate payments of 100,000 pounds to his accounts in 2011, allowing the family estate to avoid a potential 80,000 pounds worth of inheritance tax.

The payments by Mary Cameron to her son in May and July 2011 were given tax-free, and will only become liable to inheritance tax of up to 40 per cent if she dies within seven years of handing over the money.

Downing Street said the payments were an attempt to “balance” the sums received by all their children.
The figures show that, on top of his income as Prime Minister, his 50 per cent share of the rental income on the Camerons’ family home in London amounted to 46,899 pounds, he received 9,834 pounds in taxable expenses from the Tory party and 3,052 pounds in interest on savings in a high street bank.

The figures show that when he first entered Downing Street in 2010, he benefited from a 20,000 pounds tax-free allowance as part of his 142,500 pounds salary, although in subsequent years he did not take advantage of the long-standing perk available to occupants of Number 10. -PTI