Asda owners Mohsin and Zuber Issa have denied setting up businesses in Jersey for tax reasons, as an ongoing inquiry investigates their business empire.
The billionaires are being met with increasing questions from MPs about their large debt pile and complex business structure.
In November, Mohsin Issa faced claims that he had “misled” parliament by submitting evidence with inaccuracies.
The businessman has now sought to ease concerns over his supermarket’s corporate structure.
Addressing Labour MP Liam Byrne in a letter, Issa said: “We would like to take this opportunity to confirm that no companies in the Asda ownership structure are incorporated in jurisdictions outside of England and Wales due to any ‘tax haven’ status.
“We can further confirm that all of the companies are UK tax residents regardless of where they are incorporated, they each file UK corporation tax returns and pay UK corporation tax on profits in accordance with UK tax legislation.”
The co-owner insisted an “administrative error” had resulted in previous correspondence indicating some Asda businesses were incorporated in Jersey instead of England and Wales.
Issa commented: “We do not believe that this error amounted to us having misled the committee.”
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The remarks follow pressure from MPs to get further information from the Issa brothers about their business operations.
Concerns have increasingly been flagged over the pair’s use of debt to fuel acquisitions, with uncertainties about whether high borrowing costs could stop supermarket Asda reducing costs for shoppers.
Speaking in a letter to Issa earlier in December, Byrne said: “The committee remains concerned about the complexity of the company structure within which Asda sits and is anxious to establish whether there are any further inaccuracies in the information that you have provided.”
The co-owner is set to deliver evidence to the committee next Tuesday during a session investigating the use of private equity in retail.
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