Take That stars 'invest £26m in scheme designed to avoid paying tax'
Published Jun 20 2012, 05:03 BST | By Christian Tobin
Take That members Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen invested £26 million in a scheme allegedly designed to avoid tax, it has been reported.The 'Rule The World' musicians along with manager Jonathan Wild are among 1,000 people who contributed £480 million to 62 music industry partnerships that Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs claim act as tax shelters for wealthy individuals, according to The Times.
© PA Images / Ian West/PA Wire
Lawyers for the bandmates involved insisted that they thought the investments were legitimate enterprises and not tax avoidance schemes, and said that they all pay "significant tax". There is also no suggestion of any illegality.
HMRC is attempting to shut down the partnerships, overseen by a firm called Icebreaker Management Services, for what it claims is a tax loophole.
"We do not accept that the Icebreaker tax schemes have the tax effects their promoters claim," a HMRC spokesman said.
Robbie Williams and Jason Orange are not involved in the investments.
The news follows yesterday's Times report alleging that Jimmy Carr puts £3.3 million a year into an offshore shelter as part of a tax avoidance scheme used by 1,100 rich individuals.
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Watch the video for Take That's 'Love Love' below:
This is nothing like the Jimmy Carr scam...what they're doing is legal and I think Gary has done his fair share of charity work. This isn't even a story..
June 21st 2012 at 8:26pm
What Jimmy Carr did was legal. Doesn't mean it was right.
Regardless of how much charity work they do, I don't think it;s right that any star does this. The tax they are avoiding could pay to help *thousands* of people. Probably a lot more than any charity work they do.
In reply to Kirsten Walton, legal or not, there is every reason to blame them. No one forces them to do it. They chose to, knowing that even if they did pay the full rate of tax, they'd still have a luxurious life. They chose to deprive the less fortunate.
July 3rd 2012 at 12:55am
If it's legal, there's no reason to blame them for it. If you don't agree, by all means lobby for a change in the law, but people aren't going to voluntarily pay tax they don't have to. Tax avoidance isn't illegal - only tax evasion is.
June 20th 2012 at 11:46pm
Anyone who pays tax should be angry about this. Regardless how you feel about them as entertainers they should not be excused for being clever enough to avoid paying the taxman.
June 20th 2012 at 7:39pm
At the end of the day no one owes anything to anyone and if there is no legal obligation to pay part of their income tax why should day - no one wants to lose millions when they don't have to. They can do what they want with their money - they can even KLF it into a fire coz they earned it.
June 20th 2012 at 6:35pm(+1 like)
I don't think we can compare this story to the Jimmy Carr one, the Take That boys invested some of their money into a scheme which is only allegedly designed to avoid tax, we should wait until we hear the full story before we condemn them. Jimmy Carr invested all of his money into offshore bank accounts which is completely different and he only ended up paying 1% of tax, I'm sure the Take That boys pay an awful lot of tax on their earnings and they said they thought they were investing in something which was ok
June 20th 2012 at 4:15pm(+1 like)
They both pay the tax they have to. If they had to pay more tax they would. but they don't have to.
Easy thing to change though. Just noone has.
June 20th 2012 at 7:41pm