Ritz hotel paid no corporation tax in 17 years: BBC

London's upper crust Ritz hotel has not paid a penny in corporation tax in the 17 years after its takeover by the reclusive Barclay twins according to the BBC.

The accounts of the hotel bought by the brothers in 1995 have been analysed by the BBC's Panorama programme last night, which reveal that the profitable hotel has through a series of tax reliefs reduced the corporation tax to zero.

According to the brothers, they had not run their UK companies after their retirement to Monaco over 20 years ago.

Though the efforts of the hotel to cut its tax bill are legal, questions have been raised at a time when Littlewoods, another firm bought by Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay, has been embroiled in a legal battle with the tax authorities.

The brothers are also owners of The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspaper titles. The twins also bought the catalogue company Littlewoods in 2002 which has already won a VAT rebate plus interest worth £472 million from HMRC over payments dating back to 1973.

However, the twins' company has taken the government to court demanding a further £1 billion from the government in compound interest.