How ironic that, in the midst of a government propaganda campaign against tax avoidance (despite the fact that it is perfectly legal), the BBC (a taxpayer funded body) is proactively assisting its higher paid "stars" to avoid tax.Many of the "stars" describe themselves as "freelance", and have set up service companies that enable them to avoid the new 50% tax levy.
The BBC also keeps hundreds of other presenters off its books, by putting them on freelance deals.
How ironic!
Tax does have to be taxing.
Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations
What is TAXWISE?
TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.
To find out more, please use this link Taxwise
Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.
Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
Well, if you can have a freelance Director General ....
ReplyDeletePerhaps these stars are all doing blue skies thinking for our much admired and beloved government.
I presume you're referring to this article: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6860238.ece
ReplyDeleteInteresting that it suggests HMRC had a go at them for this a couple of years ago (though it doesn't say the outcome - if anything it's likely that the Beeb tightened up its contracts to ensure they didn't fall foul of IR35). Makes it seem somewhat less ironic, don't you think.
If nothing else, surely the fact that our main broadcaster (which is only taxpayer-funded in so far as the government tops up the discounted licence fees of the over-75s) is sufficiently free from government to be able to do this shows that we don't yet live in quite as oppressive a dictatorship (24/09/09) as words like "propaganda" would imply.