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British ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie benefited from a tax loophole when buying a property.
London – According to research by the BBC, this emerges from the “Pandora Papers”. The couple did not act illegally. However, on Monday night, the broadcaster pointed out that Blair had repeatedly criticized tax loopholes. It’s about a building in London that the Blairs bought in 2017 for £ 6.45 million (€ 7.5 million today). It is now the seat of Cherie Blair’s legal advisory service and her foundation. The previous owner was therefore an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The Blairs started a company that bought the offshore company. That meant they were buying a business, not a property – so there was no real estate transfer tax, which would have been £ 312,000. The acquired offshore company was then dissolved.
Cherie Blair told the BBC that her husband was not involved in the deal. Only the mortgage for the building was determined on the basis of their joint income and capital. She stressed that she had brought the building back under UK tax and regulation rules and that if it were sold on, capital gains taxes would be payable. Labor politician Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. (dpa)
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