Cameron’s use of Greensill Capital plane under investigation
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Private plane flights taken by David Cameron while he worked for the collapsed finance firm Greensill Capital are being examined by tax officials, it has been claimed.
Lord Cameron has accepted using Greensill Capital’s company plane “a number of times” but insists the appropriate tax was paid for any benefit received.
According to The Guardian, tax officials are looking at flights taken by Lord Cameron that took off or landed close to his homes in Oxfordshire and Cornwall.
It is also reported they are examining an offshore trust set up by Greensill that was used to pay Lord Cameron.
The Guardian said it had seen flight logs showing that Lord Cameron had taken at least 13 flights to and from Newquay Airport on Greensill’s private jet.
It said there were also two flight logs involving RAF Brize Norton, in west Oxfordshire, said to be for Lord Cameron’s benefit. The flights are taxable services because they are given to staff as a benefit in addition to any salary.
Lord Cameron, now the Foreign Secretary, undertook lobbying work for Greensill between 2018 and 2021, earning as much as £7 million in salary and shares.
A parliamentary inquiry subsequently found he had exercised a “significant lack of judgment” in bombarding ministers and officials in an attempt to secure government Covid loans for Greensill. The lobbying did not succeed.
A spokesman for Lord Cameron told The Guardian: “As already made clear in David Cameron’s evidence to the Treasury select committee in May 2021, he did use Greensill’s company plane a number of times on a personal basis, all for short-haul flights, and tax was paid appropriately for any benefit received.
“Further, all income received from Greensill has been properly declared to HMRC and all tax paid in full.”
There is also said to be scrutiny of the method of payment to Lord Cameron. He was paid for his lobbying work through a trust in Guernsey set up by Lex Greensill, an Australian businessman and Greensill’s founder, who lives in Cheshire.
The private flights would constitute a benefit in kind. It is unclear what precisely HMRC would be examining in relation to whether Lord Cameron had paid tax in full on the flights. HMRC said it could not comment on individual taxpayers.
