Frankie Boyle denies tax avoidance claims
Published Jul 1 2012, 15:44 BST | By Tom Eames
Frankie Boyle has denied claims that he has been involved in a tax avoidance scheme.The comedian was reported by the Daily Mail to have avoided paying around £900,000 tax through the voluntary liquidation of his firm in 2011.
© Channel 4
© PA Images / Yui Mok/PA Wire
The newspaper claimed that by closing down Traskor Productions Limited, he was able to pay a tax rate of just 10% rather than 50%. This was reportedly due to him claiming 'entrepreneur tax' relief, which saved him £880,762.
However, Boyle dismissed the report via a statement on his Twitter page, saying that he had actually paid more tax than most people involved in entertainment and politics.
He wrote: "From 2007 I have paid £2.7 million in tax and this equates to just under 40% of my income.
"There's a lot of things people do to avoid paying tax and I don't do any of them.
"I wound my company up for legal reasons separate from tax and my accountant applied for tax relief on this. This tax relief is approximately half of the tax saving the Mail quoted in its article today.
"I am certain I pay more tax than most people in show business and the cabinet."
Boyle had previously criticised Jimmy Carr's tax avoidance involvement, tweeting: "It's ok to avoid tax providing every time you do a joke about a town being s**t you add 'Partly down to me I'm afraid' under your breath."
I don't get the uproar around all this. Surely one of the first things successful people do is pay an expensive accountant to help them keep as much of their earnings as possible. This is what all the rich are doing, why the spotlight on a few individuals now? Is this to distract from companies like Amazon who operate in the UK but pay zero tax - surely it's them who should be burned at the stake, not specific showbiz individuals.
July 2nd 2012 at 10:00am
I always think that people who didn't like Tramodol Nights are idiotic, they usually site their lack of attention span as a failing of the show!
July 2nd 2012 at 2:35am
Spot on there, I have nothing but respect for anyone leaving the soulless by-the-numbers safety of something like mock the week (lucrative and widely watched? yes, insipid and moronic? also yes) to do something edgy, new and different like Tramadol Nights
July 2nd 2012 at 10:53am
Frankie is in the spotlight well im happy :)
July 2nd 2012 at 1:29am
Daily Fail strikes again!
July 1st 2012 at 8:15pm(+1 like)
Entrepreneurs relief is not a tax avoidance scheme, it is a tax relief meaning he does not have to pay tax on a certain amount. He's not avoiding tax, there is no tax to avoid.
July 1st 2012 at 8:08pm