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F1 World Champion avoids tax on private jet
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LEWIS HAMILTON is one of the many high-profile names that have surfaced from the Paradise Papers leak. The Formula One world champion managed to avoid paying European taxes on his private jet by using a controversial scheme that is now to be investigated by Britain's tax authorities.
A scheme used by Hamilton, already one of the world's richest sports stars whose personal fortune is estimated at €240 million, to dodge paying European taxes on his private jet is to be investigated by HM Revenue and Customs.
Legitimate tax avoidance schemes are not illegal and there is no suggestion Hamilton was directly involved in creating the scheme operated from the British-owned Isle of Man to finance the purchase of his €18 million Bombardier jet from Canada in 2013.
Accountancy firm EY and Appleby, the law firm at the centre of the Paradise Papers leak, helped the British racing driver and other clients establish artificial leasing businesses through which they rented their own jets from themselves under a scheme approved by the Isle of Man government.
The sportsman appears to have used shell companies in the British Virgin Island, the Isle of Man and Guernsey to avoid the entire €3.6 million owed when he imported the red-coloured jet into England. Similarly, he set up another Isle of Man-based company to purchase a seven-figure motorhome, again paying no VAT.