Content
U-Turns Galore
Premises, Promises
Filing Bonus
RIP: 0% Rate
His and Hers
Party Spirit
State Of The Union
VAT's The Point?
Going Dutch
Away Win For Revenue
WIP-Round
The Best Land Plans
Tax Free Gizmos
Where Theres A Will
Do You Work Here?
Out Of The Shadows
Sacrifice Works
Home Sweet Office
Sauce For The Goose
Blissful Ignorance
PC Or Not PC?
Lost On Penalties
Worth The Paper
Carry The Can
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The papers have reported that the Inland Revenue are cracking down on the schemes football clubs set up to pay some of their foreign players. The amounts of money the stars get paid are so huge that it's not surprising the clubs try to save some of the tax that they would have to pay. Of course, there were plenty of stories in the past about brown envelopes stuffed with cash, but these days it's offshore trusts and foreign companies. If a foreign "domiciled" person receives income for work done abroad and the money stays out of the country, it can escape UK tax. It seems that some clubs have tried taking advantage of these rules - tax avoidance planning - rather than the obviously illegal "route one" of tax evasion. The trouble is, of course, that the Revenue are particularly hot on tax avoidance these days. If they get wind of a scheme being marketed to a group of highly-paid people, they are likely to try very hard to prove it doesn't work. At the very least, the club is going to have to deal with the worry and inconvenience of an investigation - at worst, it will have to pay the tax it was trying to avoid, possibly with some interest and penalties as well. Many people believe that "going offshore" gets you out of tax - it usually isn't so. If you hear of a tax avoidance scheme and want to know if it works, we will be happy to discuss it with you. But don't get your hopes up!  |
© Bayar Hughes & Co., 2010.