"Панамские документы": Фонд Кэмеронов за 30 лет "не заплатил ни пенни налогов" в британскую казну

David Cameron's father 'ran offshore fund that paid zero UK tax for 30 years'

David Cameron’s father was allegedly involved in hiring what has been called a small army of Bahamas residents – including a part-time bishop – to sign paperwork for an offshore fund in what may have been an effort to avoid paying UK tax.

Papers leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca are said to suggest Ian Cameron was part of the scheme as a director of Blairmore Holdings Inc.

The investment fund was reportedly run from the Caribbean but named after Cameron family’s ancestral home in Aberdeenshire.

The fund, created in the early 1980s with the help of the prime minister’s late father, is believed to still exist today.

The Guardian, one of the 109 international media organisations given access to the massive tranche of data from Mossack Fonseca, has claimed that in 30 years Blairmore has never paid a penny of tax in the UK on its profits.

Blairmore’s 2006 investment prospectus also stated: "The directors intend that the affairs of the fund should be managed and conducted so that it does not become resident in the UK for UK taxation purposes. Accordingly... the fund will not be subject to UK corporation tax or income tax on its profits."

Asked to confirm whether David Cameron’s family still had any money invested in Blairmore Holdings Inc, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said today it was "a private matter”.

HMRC has told The Independent it could not confirm whether or not the affairs of Blairmore Holdings would be investigated.

However, Jennie Granger HMRC’s director-general of enforcement and compliance has said that tax inspectors have asked the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to share the leaked data with HMRC, and pledged to "closely examine this data”.

This means there is a possibility that Blairmore Holdings’ tax affairs could come under scrutiny.

Three former Conservative MPs and six members of the House of Lords are among those with connections to companies on the books of the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Though it is legal to manage money offshore, the practice has drawn increasing criticism during years of enduring austerity.

The British prime minister has been calling for reforms, recognising – along with other world leaders – that the system is too secret and in need of an overhaul.

In 2012, Cameron criticised complex offshore structures saying it is "not fair and not right”. At a G8 summit in Enniskillen three years ago, he demanded more transparency, saying this would be better for business in the UK.

Last year, he added: "I’ll continue to make the case for transparency with international partners, including the British overseas territories and crown dependencies. And I am willing to go further, and take concrete steps to force the pace.”

Mates, who stood down in 2010 as member of parliament for East Hampshire, is a shareholder in a company called Haylandale, which leased a large area of land in the Caribbean island of Barbuda. The former Conservative MP said he was invited to become the chairman of the company to help "deal with” the government of Antigua and Barbuda.

Three senior Tory figures were also named in the papers, including the former party donor and MP Lord Ashcroft.

And the Baroness and life peer Pamela Sharples was named as a shareholder and one-time director of Nunswell Investments Limited, a Bahamas-ba.