BBC reports claim that documents hacked from the files of law firm Appleby reveal offshore companies were used to buy and run Glasgow’s St Enoch Shopping Centre and London’s Chiswick Business Park.
And the BBC alleges that specialised trusts based in the Island called Jersey Property Unit Trusts, or JPUTs, were used to acquire the properties so that Stamp Duty Land Tax could be avoided.
A report on the BBC Scotland website says: ‘Leaked documents from the offshore law firm Appleby, seen by BBC Scotland, show for the first time how the group structured two major UK property deals.
‘Top accountancy firms issued long documents to Blackstone outlining how it could use trusts in the tax haven of Jersey and a complex structure of companies in Luxembourg for the purchase of both Chiswick Park and the St Enoch Centre.’
It adds: ‘There is no suggestion that the plans were illegal but campaigners the Tax Justice Network described the structures Blackstone used as an “economic fiction”.’
According to the reports, Blackstone bought Chiswick Park, a 33-acre office development in west London, in 2011 for £480 million, but offshore structures allowed £19 million in stamp duty to be avoided, as well as millions more on rental income and capital gains tax.
The report adds that in 2013 the private equity giant bought the St Enoch Centre in Glasgow city centre, which houses around 100 stores, for £190 million and avoided stamp duty of £7.6 million, as well as corporation tax.
It is claimed that both properties are still held in JPUTs.
Tax Justice Network researcher George Turner said that JPUTs help stamp duty to be avoided because ownership of the offshore trust is transferred instead of the properties directly.
A statement from Blackstone said: ‘Blackstone’s investments are wholly compliant with UK and international tax laws and regulations.
‘The property investment structures in question were acquired from institutional investors and are of a type commonly used for decades for investments in UK real estates, including by listed companies and a variety of institutional investors, and were adopted after appropriate advice was taken from leading tax and legal advisers.’
