CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond holds an interest in a company that paid just £5,964 in tax despite it making £1.6 million in profits since he joined the government in 2010.

One of the directors at the construction firm Chiswell (Moorgate) Limited is an accountant who specialises in mitigating tax, according to the investigation by the Mail on Sunday.

The tax paid equates to an effective rate of 0.4 per cent — way below the standard 19 per cent corporation tax rate.

Mr Hammond had made his fortune in construction. Chiswell was established as the parent company of the firms he owned or part-owned when he went into government.

He has no involvement in the running of any of the Chiswell-owned companies, but he is a beneficiary through The Hammond 2010 Discretionary Settlement Trust, which controls Chiswell.

It was suggested that Chiswell used rules that allow storing up of tax reliefs from years when a company makes a loss to offset tax on profits.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Mr Hammond or the company itself, but the revelations were at odds with him having pledged to crack down on Amazon and Google, having called on them to pay their “fair share” to fund public services.