UK PM releases tax records

UK PM David Cameron has taken the unorthodox step of releasing 6 years of tax records after questions were raised about connections to an offshore fund.

David Cameron

Protesters gather outside the gates of Downing Street in London to call for the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of the data leak. Source: AAP

British Prime Minister David Cameron has published his tax records in an attempt to draw a line under questions about his personal finances.

The issue was raised by the mention of his late father in the Panama Papers for setting up an offshore fund.

The revelations have led to demands for Cameron's resignation and handed ammunition to opposition MPs who questioned why he was reluctant to detail his financial connections with his father.

Cameron took the unorthodox step of releasing the normally confidential details after saying he should have handled the scrutiny of his family's tax affairs better.

The documents from RNS Chartered Accountants - which cover six years - show Cameron paid tax of STG75,898 ($A142,130) on income of STG200,307 in the 2014-2015 financial year, the most recent one included.

His income comprised his STG140,522 salary, taxable expenses of STG9,834, STG46,899 from half of the share of rent from his family home in London and STG3,052 in interest on savings, according to the record.

Scores of politicians and business figures have been implicated in the Panama Papers, including the prime minister of Iceland who has since stepped down.

The 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca detail the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens.

While Cameron is not accused of doing anything illegal, he made four different statements over four days about his late father's inclusion in the documents.

He said on Thursday he once had a stake in his father's offshore trust and had profited from it.

He said the unit investment trust was not set up to avoid tax but to invest in dollar-denominated shares and that he had paid all taxes due on his own investment, which was worth "something like 30,000 pounds" when he sold out in January 2010, before he became prime minister.


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Source: AAP



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