Content
Home Sweet Pension
Anything To Declare?
Death And Taxes
His And Hers
Oh, Gross!
We Didn't Mean It
Agassi Wins
Time To Go
It Could Be Worse...
Trivial Pursuit
Re: Mortgages
A Marriage Made In...
Time's Money
Show Business
Scam Of The Decade?
Gift Aid
Vat's Hot!
Wait For It
A Good Buy?
Know Your Articles
Rights And Wrongs
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Tax is always more interesting when it involves famous people - the fascination of 'I'm a celebrity, get me out of this tax bill'. Andre Agassi has recently won an appeal about his UK tax bill. The rules are pretty obscure unless you are a foreign-resident entertainer or sportsperson, in which case they are very important to you - when you appear in the UK, you are supposed to pay tax on what you earn here, even though you are based abroad. Agassi dutifully pays tax on what he gets paid for playing at Wimbledon - but then the Revenue said that he was paid by Head for using their rackets and Nike for wearing their kit, and he did both of those things at Wimbledon, so some of the sponsorship money was for UK appearances. The High Court thought that this was an ace, but the Court of Appeal called 'out' - Head and Nike were foreign companies, and they paid the money abroad to a foreign company that was owned by Agassi, a foreign individual, and the UK Revenue couldn't touch it. Unfortunately, there are a few UK residents who think that they can get the same benefit by setting up foreign companies and routing income through them. It usually doesn't work - or it only works until the Revenue find out, and then they call it tax evasion. If you are interested in what can and can't be achieved with a foreign company, we will be pleased to advise you.
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