A snail farm company connected with tax avoidance is operating in Swindon.
According to latest records, Snai1 Primary Products Ltd is paying hundreds of thousands in business rates at Kembrey Wiring, Garrard Way, Stratton.
Snai1 has been connected with helping companies avoid expensive business rates on empty properties by placing boxes of snails in their properties.
By having a snail farm as a tenant, the previously empty properties can arguably be classed as “agricultural use”, which can be exempt from business rates.
Snai1 has not been granted an exemption on rates worth £342,500 a year at Kembrey Wiring, but the company has been reported as being at the centre of a probe into tax avoidance in another UK council.
Tax avoidance is not illegal, unlike tax evasion, but business rates are collected by the council and used to pay for local services.
Before Snai1, Kembrey Wiring was occupied by L’Escargotiere (A23) Ltd according to July records.
L’Escargotiere’s website says it “breeds and rears the finest quality Helix Aspersa Muller snails”.
L’Escargotiere (A23) Ltd has entered liquidation, and Swindon Borough Council have obtained liability orders, which can be issued if a council has not received payment of business rates.
The new tenant, Snai1 is also recorded on Companies House as being involved in “raising of other animals” and selling goods and has the same director, Terence Ball.
Terence Ball is also the director of company BoyceBrooks which offers “empty property rates solutions”.
The company website says: “Our empty property rates solutions are formulated to work within the law to take advantage of current reliefs and exemptions.”
It says: “Our solutions involve the introduction of a guaranteed minimum disturbance tenant to the property who is entitled to rates relief or exemption.”
Kembrey Wiring was an aerospace firm. A public notice in the Advertiser announced it entered insolvency in 2013 and its old factory on Gerrard Way appears to stand unoccupied.
However, pictures of another building in Liverpool occupied by Snai1 show crates of snails on the floor.
The city centre office has been the centre of a council probe into tax avoidance schemes, according to the BBC.
A Liverpool City Council spokesman said: "The misuse of the agricultural exemption with the use of ‘snail farms’ in commercial premises is a business rates avoidance tactic that has been attempted in Liverpool.
“To date, no agricultural exemption has been awarded on commercial premises.”
Other councils have made similar statements but Swindon Borough Council (SBC) did not.
Snai1 Primary Products Ltd is still active.
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