ICTChris Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Former Hearts, Hibs, Celtic and Dundee Utd player Darren Jackson has been declared bankrupt due to a large tax bill. A shame for him and I'm not looking to rub salt in his wounds but it's the manner of his bankruptcy that I find interesting. He apparently owed nearly £300,000 of tax after investing in a film production tax relief scheme. These schemes became widespread for wealthy individuals around the turn of the century and since then. Effectively the level of tax relief offered for investing in British films meant that it could be profitable to invest in any film, no matter if the film subsequently made a loss. A BBC article on the schemes explains them like this As a minimum, investors in Ingenious Film Partners 2 could put in £36,000. If they put in that much, Ingenious would then loan them a further £64,000 to invest, taking their stake up to £100,000. That would be used to buy shares in film productions which, in their first year, created a roughly £90,000 loss. Top-rate taxpayers who invested in the scheme could choose to write off that loss against their taxes. So in return for putting in £36,000 in cash, they would get about the same amount in tax relief very fast - and end up owning a £100,000 stake in a group of films. So long as the films made enough to service the debt, Ingenious's structure would allow people to make a long-term investment without locking up their cash. HMRC have sued several of these film production companies and have won in court, meaning that a number of celebrities face large tax bills and potential bankruptcy. There are rumours that dozens of footballers could be impacted. The Daily Mail speculated that among others Rio Ferdinand, Andy Cole, Kevin Campbell, Danny Murphy and Martin Keown. I suppose the big question is whether these investments were mis-sold. I doubt that many of the people investing were qualified to properly interrogate their IFAs on the schemes so the risks should have been set out. Interestingly, some have said that there are numerous British films that were made solely to generate tax rebates for celebrities. Adam Curtis' apparently floated the idea of holding a 'tax avoidance' film festival to show them all. Here's a good article by Nick Cohen from more than a decade ago about the scandal - http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/may/15/tax.money Any P&Bers ever invested in a dodgy tax scheme and are now facing bankruptcy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 The Guardian article is a decent read, but I feel compelled to disagree with their rubbishing of "Sex Lives of the Potato Men", which I thought was quite funny. Anyway, having worked in the financial sector since 2004 and having sold a shit lot of financial products and instruments that I was in no way qualified to sell, I would speculate that the schemes mentioned, and many many others, were very likely mis sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gkneil Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Keith Gillespie and Callum Davidson were both involved with the Film Production tax schemes. Gillespies talks about it in his Autobiography, he ended up bankrupt too but that was mainly down to excessive gambling. Punting money into the film scheme didn't help either. I'm sure he got his bill from HMRC regarding the film stuff a while back, i'll need to check the book again. I know Callum's bro who told me about his story. I'd assume he also got hit with a bill from HMRC, who are maybe just in the process of getting through the various production companies and the stakeholders associated with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 The Guardian article is a decent read, but I feel compelled to disagree with their rubbishing of "Sex Lives of the Potato Men", which I thought was quite funny.I can only hope you're joking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Lives_of_the_Potato_Men#Critical_reception Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 I can only hope you're joking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Lives_of_the_Potato_Men#Critical_reception Generally speaking I can't stand Johnny Vegas, but I thought that film was quite funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny Danger Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 People who invest in schemes that are primarily about avoiding tax deserve everything they get. Why the f**k can't people who earn huge sums of money just pay their taxes like the rest of us? They'll still have far more left after tax than most folk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardinal Richelieu Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 I wish I'd known this information when I stuck him in number one position in the top 5 DJs thread. http://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/index.php/topic/227864-djs/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 People who invest in schemes that are primarily about avoiding tax deserve everything they get. Why the f**k can't people who earn huge sums of money just pay their taxes like the rest of us? They'll still have far more left after tax than most folk. We have a system that in most places is set up to allow those who can exploit the loopholes to do so and get away with it, at just about every level of society. To some it's no more than a game to see how much they can get away with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 Here's a cracking Adam Curtis blog on the film tax dodge, and other things http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/2c5a4a2a-745a-31cd-8d16-370a4cf98af5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deeboy Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Rio Ferdinand & Ashley Cole (amongst others) were footballers using this tax avoidance scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tibbermoresaint Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Film Partnerships are generally structured as Limited Liability Partnerships, which means details of their directors i.e. the investors, are available at Companies House. I know someone who invested in a film partnership. Of the 60 or so investors more than half were involved in football. Not just players but managers and TV pundits too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 To make money he could have used his football connections to make a porno - Dobbie does Hugh Dallas.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Here's a cracking Adam Curtis blog on the film tax dodge, and other things http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/2c5a4a2a-745a-31cd-8d16-370a4cf98af5 Has anyone on here ever seen the mutant prawn boxing movie, Crust? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScotSquid Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 I think in bankruptcy proceedings like this footballers pensions are not included. That's why Colin Hendry for one still has a good standard of living despite having ripped off the ex neighbour or whoever he was. Always wondered if Garry OConnor would have a decent wedge in one too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tibbermoresaint Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 I suspect O'Connor's pension wouldn't have vested yet. Good question,though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cement Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Bet his big posh hoose is in his wife's name though.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njord Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Bet his big posh hoose is in his wife's name though.. I was just thinking the same thing about that whelt John Viola who has went bankrupt as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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