Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative Party?s deputy-chairman, is an important asset not only for his financial support but also for bringing his expertise to focus more effectively on the marginal seats that win elections. He is, therefore, under attack from the opposition and in the media and portrayed as a politically influential but unelected rich man who is » »not paying his British taxes in full » ». This has naturally caught the attention of the electorate suffering the effects of the recession and made very aware of the massive hole in the government?s budget financing requirements.
Whether Lord Ashcroft is resident and ordinarily resident, and domiciled or not in the UK, and has completed his tax return satisfactorily is a matter for HMRC, in common with other UK-based taxpayers. He is also no different from Lord Paul, the privy counsellor and counterpart on the Labour benches (with additional problems arising from his parliamentary expense claims), and other rich individuals such as Sir Philip Green, knighted for his services to retailing while avoiding millions of pounds in tax by putting his investments in the name of his wife, a Monaco resident. All have adopted the available option of aiming to minimise their overall tax exposure on their world-wide assets. The difference with the majority of PAYE tax -payers, is in these rich individuals also being able to afford expensive accountants to handle their more complicated affairs within the bounds of tax and general domicile laws.
However, it is a sensitive political issue for David Cameron which tests his leadership competence as a future Prime Minister and again brings to the fore the need to address the increasingly devalued ?cash for honours? system and party political funding. Certainly Barack Obama showed how to mobilise a multitude of small donors for his successful presidential election campaign.