#ParadisePapers: Britain’s tax authority to look at Queen’s £10 million investment

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAK REPUBLIC - OCTOBER 23: HRH Queen Elizabeth II attends a State Banquet at the Philharmonic Hall on the first day of a tour of Slovakia on October 23, 2008 in Bratislava, Slovakia. The Queen and the Duke are on a two day tour of Slovakia at the invitation of President Ivan Gasparovic. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Britain’s tax authority has asked to look at the leaked offshore investment documents dubbed ‘Paradise Papers’ to examine allegations against the queen, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday.

“It is important to point out that holding investments offshore is not an automatic sign of wrongdoing, but
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has requested to see the papers urgently so it can look into any allegations,” he told reporters.

Newly leaked papers have revealed that Queen Elizabeth II invested some of her private money in offshore tax havens.

According to the documents obtained by the International Consortium of Journalists, the queen’s investment managers placed roughly 10 million pounds in offshore portfolios in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

The investments were made by the Duchy of Lancaster, which handles the queen’s finances. There is no suggestion the investments are illegal.

The documents about Elizabeth’s financial holdings are part of a tranche of some 13.4 million records of offshore accounts leaked to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.

The documents were shared with the International Consortium of Journalists and a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries.

The queen has vast financial assets, including real estate, works of art and jewelry.(Reuters/NAN)

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