Breitbart: Questions over property tax arrangements at right-wing news website's UK operation

The UK-arm of a right-wing news website linked to Donald Trump and run by Nigel Farage’s closest aide has been failing to pay British business rates, evidence found during an investigation by The Independent strongly suggests.

Breitbart’s London site, owned by a company based in the British Virgin Islands tax haven and edited by Raheem Kassam, is using a three-storey townhouse in Hide Place, Westminster, which has not been registered for the property tax with the local council.

Mr Kassam was part of the select Ukip entourage photographed with Mr Trump in his New York apartment complex shortly after his stunning election victory last month.

He has been working for Breitbart for more than two years after he was appointed London editor by then executive chairman Steve Bannon in February 2014.

After Mr Bannon was hired as the chief executive of Mr Trump’s election campaign earlier this year, the news site has enjoyed global attention.

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'Donald Trump on steroids': The extraordinary rise of Farage favourite and Breitbart boss Raheem Kassam

It is notorious as a platform for the so-called “alt right”, the new extreme right-wing movement that some claim promotes racist and white nationalist ideology.

It celebrated the Brexit result by hailing 2016 “the year the New World Order comes crashing down” and it has been accused of simply “riding the Trump wave”.

Its headlines have included, “There’s no hiring bias against women in tech, they just suck at interviews” and “Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy”.

But its success is now putting it under the spotlight.

Following Mr Trump’s victory Mr Bannon was appointed the President-elect’s chief strategic adviser for his new White House administration.

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In the UK, all businesses which are occupiers of buildings are legally required to register for business rates even if only part of the property is used for non-domestic purposes.

Breitbart has declined to answer all questions posed by The Independent about its UK affairs.

However, a Breitbart journalist confirmed the £1.76m townhouse in Hide Place, just off Vincent Square, was used by the the website when The Independent visited. It has a single entrance from Hide Place and there is no company nameplate.

A source has confirmed the property contains a bedroom that has been used by Mr Kassam and others for overnight stays.

The source said the property was more a place to meet for discussions and to relax than an office.

Mr Bannon launched Breitbart’s UK operations in February 2014 when he said London would be one of the new “fronts in our current cultural and political war”, adding: “There is a growing global anti-establishment revolt against the permanent political class at home, and the global elites that influence them, which impacts everyone from Lubbock to London.”

His first decision was to appoint Mr Kassam, then 28, as editor. Mr Kassam, an outspoken political activist who briefly stood for Ukip leader in October, harbours ambitions to work as an adviser to Mr Trump, but for the moment remains the Breitbart London editor.

However, he told The Independent he knew nothing of how Breitbart ran its business affairs in the UK and passed all our questions to the US editor-in-chief Alex Marlow, who has not responded.

The Independent has established that Breitbart London has been using the Hide Place house since July 2016.

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Before that its journalists were using a ground floor property about a mile away in Matthew Parker Street, Westminster. That building also contained a bedroom that was sometimes used by Mr Kassam and others free of charge.

There is no record of either address as having been registered for business rates with Westminster City Council in that time.

Businesses in the Westminster council catchment are valued at roughly £400 per square metre, reduced by a multiplier factor of around 0.462. A 20sq-metre office space could be liable for around £7,400 over two years.

The Independent has also established that Breitbart staff have been paid by a British company, Breitbart News network (UK) Ltd, which according to Companies House records has a registered address in Redditch, Worcestershire.

The company's sole shareholder is Breitbart News Network Ltd, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Companies registered in the BVI do not have to disclose their shareholders or other funders.

During the leak of the so-called Panama Papers earlier this year, Breitbart published many stories about individuals who were found to be using the British Virgin Islands as a tax haven.

One Breitbart reporter described the data dump as a “loaded gun pointed squarely at some of the most protected people on the planet” and described how “leaders of the world are willing to victimise their own for the sake of personal gain”.

The articles did not disclose Breitbart’s own links to the tax haven.

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The Hide Place property, which, according to Land Registry records, was bought by Andorra-based Thor Developers Ltd in March 2016 for £1.76m, became Breitbart’s London office shortly after the European Union referendum in June.

It is banded for £1,114.68 in residential council tax but is not listed as a “mixed use” property.

Westminster City Council said: “If there is evidence that the property should be in the business rate list rather than the council tax list, this evidence should be provided to the Valuation Office (VOA).”

A VOA spokesman said: “We don’t discuss or comment on identifiable ratepayers. The VOA do not set or collect business rates. The local authority determines the use of the building. The VOA value properties for the market rental value which the local authority determine the business rates or council tax on.”