Gibraltar's lax tax regimes attract Mark Thatcher

13 April 2012

Sir Mark Thatcher is believed to be planning a move to Gibraltar.

He has reportedly applied for residency in the sunsoaked British dependency.

If successful, Baroness Thatcher's controversial son could escape with paying only £20,000-a-year tax on his estimated £65million fortune.

Sir Mark, 53, has consulted tax experts and is believed to be looking for a £1million penthouse on the Rock.

He stands a good chance of gaining residency, according to insiders, because of new rules brought in to attract the super-wealthy.

They require only that Sir Mark pay a £1,000 fee, prove he is worth more than £2million and buy or rent a property appropriate to sustaining the lifestyle of a wealthy individual'.

Sir Mark, twin brother of Carol, made an estimated £40million from controversial arms deals in the Middle East and Africa, and received a huge bequest from his father Sir Denis, who died in 2003.

He does not even need to reside in Gibraltar for his income tax to be capped at £20,000. It is 50 miles from a villa in Marbella he already rents for £3,000 a week.

Nor would his criminal conviction be a bar, the government of Gibraltar has confirmed. He pleaded guilty in South Africa last year to helping fund an attempted coup by mercenaries in the oil-rich state of Equatorial Guinea.

When it failed, coup leader Simon Mann, a former SAS officer, was jailed. Sir Mark, who had agreed to pay for the military helicopter involved in the plot, was fined £265,000 and given a four-year suspended prison sentence.

After his trial, he was divorced by his American wife Diane, who returned to Texas with their children Michael, 17, and Amanda, 13.

Sir Mark cannot visit them because his criminal conviction means the U.S. authorities have refused to grant him a visa. He tried to gain residency rights in Monaco but Prince Albert refused to extend his residence permit, which expired in June.

He has also been turned away by Switzerland, while French newspapers reported that Sir Mark was on a list of undesirables', including money launderers, tax dodgers and drug dealers.

Residents on the Rock have spotted him looking at developments including Ocean Village, a set of apartments around a marina with a 50ft waterfall, and Trade Winds, a three-tower complex.

Sir Mark's biographer, Mark Hollingsworth, said: It is the whole offshore, spooky nature of Gibraltar that will appeal to him. Nothing gives him more pleasure than setting up elaborate and mysterious tax avoidance schemes.'

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