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Libya: Freezing of Assets

Answer

It is the Government's long-standing policy that designated persons are not exempt from tax as a consequence of having their assets frozen. The Government's response of 24 June to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee report (into Government support for UK victims of IRA attacks that used Qadhafi-supplied Semtex and weapons) set out the releasable information the Government has about tax receipts derived from the interest on frozen Libyan assets held in UK banks. The Government's response says:

"As stated in the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation's letter to the Committee of 23 April 2019, OFSI's responsibilities do not include tracking tax liabilities on frozen assets. HMRC, as the department responsible for safeguarding the flow of money to the Exchequer is responsible for any records of tax liability. HMRC has reconsidered how we can help the Committee within the legal constraints governing our ability to share information. We have concluded that we can use aggregated information to answer the Committee's questions, provided that information cannot be tied back to individual persons or companies as a result. HMRC receives payments of tax from a small proportion of the entities designated under the Libyan regime. Around £17 million has been received in total since the start of the 2016-17 tax year. HMRC currently receives around £5 million each year."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

269000

Session

2017-19

Subjects

Tax yields Libya Freezing of assets

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk