DP World has been accused of dodging tax with an £80m understatement of the value of land bought for its vast Thames port.
The company is in a dispute with HM Revenue & Customs over claims it paid too little stamp duty on its £113m purchase of the port in Thurrock, Essex.
The company bought the site from Shell in 2010. Today it is the site of the London Gateway deep sea port and logistics park, which is the size of 400 football pitches and the biggest such site in Europe.
Documents released from a case at the Upper Tax Tribunal in London show that DP World bought the site for £112.6m. However, the company reported to HMRC that the site’s value was £30.6m and it paid stamp duty only on this amount. This tax burden totalled £1.2m, instead of the £4.65m it would have paid under the higher valuation. The company obtained this dramatically lower valuation after organising its own inspection from King Sturge in November 2009.
In 2013, HMRC issued a tax demand to DP World, demanding the allegedly underpaid stamp duty.
However, in its submission to the tax office, DP World suggested that in fact it had overpaid for the port because Shell had driven a hard bargain, saying “the reason for the discrepancy” in the two valuations was that that “was the minimum price that Shell was prepared to accept after considerable negotiation”.
The case has been referred to a land tribunal to give its final verdict on the differing valuations. The date for this tribunal has yet to be set.
