It's well known that plenty of the rich and famous try to find different ways to avoid paying as much tax as they should be. Despite their privileged position in society, plenty of the super-rich don't want to pay their way and prefer to put their money in offshore accounts and tax havens in order to swerve losing a couple more million dollars a year.
However, a huge new leak of financial documents shows just how many of the super-rich invest money into offshore accounts, and one of the names in particular, is very surprising.
The leak, which has been dubbed "the Paradise Papers", contains 13.4m documents, which have mostly been from one leading firm in offshore accounting. As with last year's Panama Papers leak, the documents were initially obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which quickly called in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to take a closer look at the papers.
The revelations which emerged on Sunday only form a small part of the disclosures which are set to be released throughout the week and will aim to expose the tax and financial affairs of hundreds of people and companies. The majority of the revelations will focus on how the super-rich and famous use complex systems in order to protect their cash from tax officials or hide their dealings behind a veil of secrecy.
While you may expect to see CEO's and popstars being named in the paper, one of those who has been outed is the Queen.
According to the papers, $13m (£10m) of the Queen's money was invested offshore. It was put into funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda by the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the Queen with an income as well as handling her investments for her £500m private estate.
While there's nothing illegal in the investments and there are no suggestions that the Queen is currently avoiding paying tax, plenty of questions are now being asked about whether the Queen should be investing offshore.
There were multiple small investments in the rent-to-buy retailer BrightHouse, which has been previously accused of exploiting the poor as well as the Threshers chain of off-licenses, which went bust after owing £17.5m in tax.
The Duchy said that it was not involved in the decisions regarding the funds, and there are no suggestions that the Queen had any knowledge of the investments being made on her behalf. The Duchy has previously said that it gives "ongoing consideration regarding any of its acts or omissions that could adversely impact the reputation" of the Queen, who it claims takes "a keen interest" in the estate.
Nicholas Witchell, who is the royal correspondent for the BBC, says that is bizarre as to why the advisers felt that it was a good idea to invest in offshore funds. He also claims that questions will be asked inside Buckingham Palace into how these decisions were made.
Other people to be named in the papers include Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary, who retained an interest in a shipping firm connected to
Vladimir Putin's son-in-law and two men subject to US sanctions.
With there set to be more leaks throughout the week, it'll be interesting to see what other names get thrown into the mix - no doubt there are going to be some pretty shocking revelations.
