to be a bit pissed off that Gary Barlow has been involved in tax avoidance?

[grovel]

I thought he was supposed to be a national treasure?

From The Mirror:

Gary Barlow and two other Take That stars face having to pay back tens of millions of pounds in tax after a court ruled they were part of a massive tax avoidance scheme.

The singer-songwriter, Howard Donald, Mark Owen and manager Jonathan Wild poured £66million into two partnerships styled as music-industry investment schemes.

But the ventures were artificial tax shelters for the super-rich which allowed the musicians to avoid tax on about £63million from world tours and CD sales.

The Take That members are likely to be ordered to repay more than £20million to HM Revenue & Customs.

Tax judge Colin Bishopp rejected arguments that more than 50 partnerships, set up by a company called Icebreaker Management, had been set up for commercial purposes.

He said: “Icebreaker is, and was known and understood by all concerned to be, a tax avoidance scheme.

“The aim was to secure [tax] relief for members, and to inflate the scale of the relief by unnecessary borrowing.”

Tax avoidance is legal so he wouldn't be in court.

He wasn't in court. The court was making a judgement on Icebreaker Management.

I would imagine they know very little about accountancy and tax and trust others to manage this for them.
Perhaps a new accountant is in order.

Ooooh, "talented but thick"!

Meanie!

No mrsjay but underfunded public services that look after thr welfare of children have to be paid for. Gary Barlow is cheating these services of money by his tax avoidance, yet simultaneously making appeals to give money to help vulnerable children who are falling through the net due to overstetched social services, SEN budgets etc. smacks of hypocrisy.

Ah so that is how it works GB is in the T&T list, with KK, PA and KP

Here is what it says on www.icebreakerfund.co.uk/joiningllp.asp

Joining an Icebreaker LLP

Individual members of the Icebreaker LLPs each contribute a minimum capital contribution of £200,000. Subject to the member fulfilling the bank's criteria, a bank loan is expected to be available to finance 80% of this capital contribution.

Members are expected to bring their own business and personal experience to their LLP and to contribute to its trade by playing an active part in the LLP's commercial activities. Accordingly, membership of an Icebreaker LLP may not be suitable for an individual who is, for example, simply seeking a possible means to obtain tax relief.

(obviously they haven't got the mumsnet hmmm emoticon on their website, that was me but they bloody should have )

compos underfunded services like the projects C I N run and pay have never been a priority in this country regardless of people paying taxes. sadly .

CIN raised £600m

Gary Barlow will probably be as shocked to hear he had his money in this scheme as everyone else is.

Nobody manages their money when they get to that amount of earnings. They employ wealth managers.

I think the case in court was to s determine whether this scheme was avoidance or evasion.

I don't think GB is personally culpable. He's a song writer after all, not an accountant, or a manager.

Of course those who think he knows his own business down to the last penny will get their daily mail hate on and rage about the charities he supports pro bono, and claim he's a hypocrite and taking food out of the mouths of babes while they do no voluntary work themselves!

I would have expected Gary Barlow to be on the protected list tbh.

I don't blame anyone wanting to avoid paying tax. They take advice from people who claim to understand the tax laws better than they do, but as a consequence have to accept that the advice they accept might be wrong, or found wrong if the Revenue try hard enough.

Avoidance is not evasion

another reason to love JK Rowling...

www.democraticunderground.com/10021437043

bitter I fucking do. Being greedy and stupid and letting someone dodge tax on your behalf and then turning a blind eye is no excuse.

Sometimes I am not sure whether these tax evasion schemes are intentional when done by celebs. I have a suspicion that they have accountants that say "we can save you money doing so and so" and they just give the go ahead with out really looking into it.

He's followed the advice of his account, that's all. To legally minimise his tax bill.
We'd all do the same. I don't believe for a second he was evading tax.

The idea that poor old Gaz will be just as shocked to hear of this avoidance scheme is laughable. JK Rowling is a hell of a lot wealthier and she manages to keep an eye on the tax she pays.

If only more of the rich and extremely famous would follow her example.

Ah I see TheEnchantedForest has already mentioned JK!

I have always hated him, he is a nasty Tory who has said how much he admired Thatcher

I would rather be a brew mug like JK any day.

Composhat: People who are very high earners take advice. Advice, good or bad, is often based on the tax-regime in force at the time. Creatives, who have no qualifications in accountancy or tax, (bloody hell, some of them can barely read properly) have to take on trust the advice they are given.

Musicians and other creatives if they earn any money at all, generally make it in extremely short periods of time, and earn practically bugger-all in succeeding decades. The tax authorities act like they will be earning the same fortune next year and every year thereafter and tax accordingly. This is why they need tax-planning advice and I don't see anything wrong with that. I would do the same, and cross my fingers that the Revenue don't change the goalposts or find some loophole to get their mitts on my dosh.

'Being greedy and stupid and letting someone dodge tax on your behalf and then turning a blind eye is no excuse.'

Exactly.

Why is that ridiculous? If everyone simply decided to opt out of their obligations to pay taxes

He wasn't trying to opt out of his obligation, he was trying to avoid paying more than he was obliged to. Sometimes when taxpayers and HMRC disagree on where the line is, there is a legal process, ending in a court case, to rule one way or the other. On this occasion, HMRC won.

If I were GB I would on the blower to JK asking to use her tax accountants.