GREED THE CURSE OF THE STARS

GREED THE CURSE OF THE STARS

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4857432/bono-tax-dodge-paradise-papers-james-delingpole-opinion/ star was exposed in the Paradise Papers avoiding tax. It’s about an ordinary guy, born Paul Hewson, best friend of popes, prime ministers and presidents, and his heroic mission to save the world and his near-billion dollar fortune by sheltering it in ingenious offshore accounting schemes including a shopping centre in Lithuania, bought via low-tax Malta. Bono is forever using emotional blackmail to make starstruck governments spend our money on his worthy causes. Through his non-profit ONE campaign, he advocates more aid to help impoverished people in the Third World. He also wants us, the taxpayers of the West, to eradicate Aids, cancel developing world debts and end poverty. greedy companies like Exxon Mobil aren’t paying their proper share of tax locally — pretty rich from a man who in 2006 moved some of U2’s operations from low-tax Ireland to the even lower-tax Netherlands. In 2008, he was rich enough to splurge £18million on a yacht. One of his investment schemes, Elevation Partners, owns a chunk of Facebook — a company so adept at tax avoidance you could write an album’s worth of crusading anthems about it.Ditto Apple, whose tax-dodging antics Bono was happy to overlook when it earned U2 shedloads for the use of their song Vertigo on an iPod ad. Not to mention partnering with it on that infamous forced giveaway of Songs Of Innocence.He’s a self-proclaimed philanthropist, conservatively estimated at being worth £531million.

Then there is Gary Barlow — that’s Gary Barlow OBE, elevated to near National Treasure status for all the wonderful work he does for charidee.

But behind the scenes, it emerged in 2014, the sanctimonious singer and his Take That bandmates were making like bandits with tax avoidance schemes.

Another singer, Katie Melua, ploughed £850,000 into the same scheme as Barlow. She did this just after being nominated for nominated for Christian Aid’s Tax Superhero award, having boasted: “I pay nearly half of what comes to me in taxes.” She has denied tax avoidance after paying back cash to HMRC.

And did you hear the one about Jimmy Carr? Of course you did. The darling of the comedy circuit. Oh, how we all laughed when it emerged he had tucked away at least £3.3million in a Jersey-based tax avoidance scheme.

The way that K2 and similar schemes work is remarkably simple. Its members redirect their earnings into a Jersey-based trust. The trust then grants interest-free or low-interest loans to members, on which little or no tax is payable. The borrowers then quietly 'forget' to repay these loans, which the trust later writes off against the earnings it holds.

A £1.66million-a-year tax cut

Thanks to K2, Carr and other K2 members are paying tax rates of little more than 1 per cent on the millions of pounds they make each year. To put this tax avoidance into context, if the 39-year-old stand-up were to pay tax on this £3.3million through PAYE, then his tax bill would be nearly £1.7million a year.

A long line of Premier League footballers, TV stars, entrepreneurs and other loaded Brits have tried out a variety of tax tricks over the years. In the past, wealthy Brits' favourite tax dodges have included these schemes, most of which have since been outlawed:

- Offshore employee benefit trusts (EBTs). During his high-profile divorce case in 2004, ex-Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour revealed that his wage was paid into a Jersey-based employee benefit trust. The EBT then gave Parlour low-interest loans that were not taxable, in similar fashion to Carr's K2 trust. This move saved the Premier League star around half a million pounds in tax over three years.

- Payments in kind (PIKs). Instead of being paid in cash, top City traders often received their multi-million-pound bonuses in tradable commodities such as gold, wine, diamonds, antiques and even furs. These payments in kind enabled them to avoid paying NICs on these bumper payouts, before they were banned in the mid-Nineties.

- Being domiciled in an overseas tax haven. Billionaire retailer Sir Philip Green paid his wife Tina a £1.2billion cash dividend in 2005. As Lady Green is officially domiciled in Monaco, she paid no income tax on this huge sum, avoiding £285million in tax.

- Partnership subsidies. Kenneth McFarlane, a top tax partner at accountancy giant Deloitte, bought his large family home in Barnes, south-west London via his company's partnership, claiming tax relief on this purchase. In effect, taxpayers paid for 40% of McFarlane's home.

Jenson Button is a resident of Monaco where he takes advantage of zero income tax. He also has properties in the UK and Bahrain.

Among names linked to the controversial film plans which offered tax breaks were Robbie Williams, Phillip Schofield and Victoria and David Beckham.

HM Revenue and Customs argued the scheme was a form of avoidance and won a ruling last August to claw back more than two thirds of the total tax relief claimed.

Both Victoria and David Beckham have been linked to the scheme which HMRC claims to be a form of tax avoidance

This Morning host Phillip Schofield was offered a tax break after investing in Ingenious film schemes

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell - now known as Geri Horner - is another celebrity caught up in the scheme

TV presenter Davina McCall was among one of the 1,400 investors who poured cash into the controversial film plans which offered tax breaks

TV presenters Ant and Dec have also been linked to the controversial tax relief scheme

Singer Craig David may now a bigger tax bill after the bid to keep his fortune

Sources said some £420million tax was avoided but, with interest, the to­tal owed would near £700million.

Ingenious said most of the dispu­ted tax bills had already been paid by investors but would be reclaimed from HMRC if it won its appeal.

The specific tax positions of the named celebs are unknown and it is not clear how many have settled their claims.

Many Ingenious investors claimed they were wrongly advised to enter the schemes.

An HMRC spokesman said: “We are pleased the tribunal agreed the vast majority claimed in tax relief was simply not due.”

Victoria BeckhamGeri HalliwellMelanie ChisholmSimon FullerPeter GabrielPhillip SchofieldRobbie WilliamsGeorge MichaelCraig DavidGareth GatesAnt and Dec . Anne RobinsonDavina McCallNeil MorrisseyDavid SuchetSacha Baron CohenDavid HeymanJeremy PaxmanKate AdiePeter Fincham (ex-ITV boss)Lord Grade of Yarmouth (ex-BBC chairman) .

Lord Clive Hollick (Labour donor)Lord Davis of AbersochAndrew Mitchell MP (Tory)Rt Hon Lord Sainsbury (Tory)Lord William Waldegrave (Tory)

David Beckham (ex-Man Utd)Dennis Wise (ex-Chelsea)Dean Windass (ex-Hull)Steven Gerrard (ex-Liverpool)Anton Ferdinand (ex-QPR)Marcus Bent (ex-Everton)Jamie Carragher (ex-Liverpool)Nicky Barmby (ex-Spurs)Dominic Matteo (ex-Liverpool)Wes Brown (ex-Man Utd)Nicky Butt (ex-Man Utd)Michael Hughes (ex-C Palace)Steven Caldwell (ex-Burnley)Joey Barton (ex-Man City)Martin Keown (ex-Arsenal)Jonathan Woodgate (ex-Leeds)Colin Hendry (ex-Blackburn)Emile Heskey (ex-Liverpool)Clinton Morrison (ex-Palace)Danny Murphy (ex-Liverpool)Scott Parker (ex-Charlton)John O’Shea (ex-Man Utd)Hayden Mullins (ex-Palace)John Arne Riise (ex-Liverpool)Trevor Sinclair (ex-West Ham)Mamady Sidibe (ex-Stoke)Robbie Keane (ex-Spurs)Neil Lennon (ex-Leicester)Joleon Lescott (ex-Man City)Gary Lineker (ex-Leicester)Paul Konchesky (ex-Leicester)Francis Jeffers (ex-Everton)Eoin Jess (ex-Aberdeen)Alain Goma (ex-Fulham)Ryan Giggs (ex-Man Utd)Andy Griffin (ex-Newcastle)Tim Cahill (ex-Everton)Jussi Jaskelainen (ex-Bolton)Michael Bridges (ex-Leeds)Matthew Etherington (ex-W Ham)Paul McVeigh (ex-Norwich)Gudni Bergsson (ex-Bolton)Simon Charlton (ex-Bolton)Matthew Elliott (ex-Leicester)Dean Richards (ex-Wolves)