NADHIM Zahawi lied and then responded with legal threats in an attempt to stop investigations into his tax affairs, a consultant who first exposed the story has claimed.
Independent tax expert Dan Neidle claimed Mr Zahawi lied then started talks with HMRC after he asked questions about his taxes.
Mr Neidle told GB News: “What makes it personal for me is at the same time that he was negotiating with HMRC to fix the default in his tax affairs he was sending lawyers to threaten to sue me and newspapers for reporting it.
“There was a problem in his tax affairs. He was denying there was a problem with his tax affairs. He was saying again and again, ‘I don’t benefit from an offshore structure’ – when it looks like absolutely he did.
“He’s said he was smeared, he said he was smeared again when I started reporting on this, instead of saying, ‘oh, there might be something here. I’m gonna look into it’, which I think a lot of people would have accepted and I certainly would have done.
“Instead of that, he denied it and he sent lawyers to threaten people reporting on it. That to me is the scandal here.”
In an interview with Mark Longhurst during GB News Live, he said: “I advise some of the world’s largest corporations on taxes of billions and tens of billions of pounds.
“I’ll tell you what none of them did. None of them received £27 million, didn’t get advice about it, didn’t report it to HMRC, didn’t pay the tax on it.
“That is not what normal wealthy people, normal large companies do. That is, as I think he’s admitted, careless, that’s why he’s paid what looks like a 30% penalty.
“Lots of people get their tax wrong. Lots of people end up in a fight with HMRC as to who’s right, who’s wrong. Normally, that doesn’t end with a 30% penalty.”
He said: “All the information I have, all of my research is public, but I’m delighted to answer any questions they may have, delighted to share this correspondence from his lawyers, most of which I’ve now published anyway, but I didn’t really think we need an investigation.
“We just need Mr Zahawi to answer ‘what happened?’ Why did you fail to pay tax on so large an amount?
“…and why, instead of owning up to it, did you deny it to us, to me, whilst secretly going to HMRC to settle it and pay a penalty?”
Mr Neidle added: “I’m not in favour of people MPs and ministers generally publishing their tax affairs. But if the Chancellor of the Exchequer was so careless as to not report £27 million pounds of income or gains, I think that is a matter of public interest.
“And if he then denies there is a problem, denies the benefits from offshore structure when he does and sends legal threats to people and people reporting on it, that seems to be certainly a matter of public interest.”
