Tottenham’s new stadium, which will seat in excess of 55,000, is turning out into a controversial program with many residents being affected in North London as a result of it.
Initially, it was branded as a development that will change the face of this region, which has been severely affected as a result of the riots two years ago. However, Tottenham’s skewed plans is beginning to attract criticism from various quarters including the anti-tax avoidance committee. The land that is being used to build the stadium is registered by Tottenham in a company located in Bahamas.
This has been criticised by several officials, who say that this is a deliberate move by the club in order to benefit from any potential profits that they make from the sale of the land. If the company had been in the United Kingdom, then those profits would have been subjected to capital gains tax. The move to use a company from the Bahamas, which is a tax haven and also the home of Tottenham owner Joe Lewis, has been criticised severely. Tottenham have also applied for the planning commission to exempt them from a £ 16 million fee that is required in order to develop the infrastructure around the area.
“It depends on the precise arrangements, but if property here is owned by an offshore company, there is no corporation tax on the gain when the property is sold,” said Richard Murphy, the anti-tax avoidance campaigner of Tax Research UK. “The transfer was to clear debts out of our UK companies which had bought the properties, so the club itself is not carrying the debts. That will help with the bank financing required for the new stadium. Both this and the club are UK operating organisations and UK tax will be paid on all UK transactions,” said a Tottenham spokeswoman.
