Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will commission a review of the practice of property developers using offshore trusts.

The Government has taken decisive steps to ensure that profits arising from the development of UK property are taxed and that the ownership of UK property through a trust is transparent.

In Finance Act 2016 the Government legislated to ensure that profits from the development of UK property are always subject to tax. Alongside this legislation HMRC created a task force to ensure tax on these profits are effectively collected.

To improve transparency in trusts the Government established a register of trusts incurring UK tax consequences, enabling law enforcement authorities to identify beneficial owners of relevant trusts. Further, the UK is engaged with EU negotiations on targeted amendments to the Fourth Money Laundering Directive, including increased obligations for trusts to register information on their beneficial ownership.