David Cameron publishes tax returns, faces more questions

David Cameron today become the first UK prime minister to make public his tax returns and ordered a new taskforce to probe the Panama Papers in a bid to douse the growing anger over his investment in his late father’s offshore business.

Thousands of protesters carrying placards reading “Tories Out” and “Cameron Must Go” marched to Downing Street yesterday demanding Cameron’s resignation over the Panama Papers scandal.

Under pressure, Downing Street published a document detailing Cameron’s income and tax payments from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

Cameron, who became the first British leader to document his financial affairs due to the unprecedented move, paid almost 76,000 pounds in tax on an income of more than 200,000 pounds in 2014-15, according to figures released by the prime minister’s office.

Cameron, 49, earned 46,899 pounds from his 50 per cent share of rent on the London family home in Notting Hill, the three-page summary of the prime minister’s earnings since 2009 showed.

The move came after Cameron admitted in an emotional speech to the Conservative party’s spring conference yesterday that he “should have handled this better” and “will learn the lessons” from the row.

“I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them,” he had said.

Cameron published the six years’ worth of accounts in an attempt to end speculation about his tax affairs after one of the most difficult weeks of his Premiership.

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.

British newspapers questioned whether the gifts were an effort to avoid paying inheritance tax on his late father’s estate.

He also announced a new taskforce to investigate tax-dodging allegations which is unlikely to spare him despite the confession.

The force will be led by the HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) tax authority and the National Crime Agency. The taskforce will investigate the leaked files to identify clients of the Panama firm suspected of money laundering and tax evasion and publish its findings later this year.

Cameron had been under increasing pressure as he refused to give details of his family’s money held offshore in a Caribbean tax haven.

His late father Ian Cameron’s name is allegedly named in the over 11 million leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that were shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with 107 media organisations around the world.

According to the Consortium, Ian Cameron used Mossack Fonseca’s services to shield profits from his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings Inc, with a series of expensive and complicated arrangements.