UK Tax Authorities crack down on unpaid staff

In the UK, HM Revenue and Customs has announced that it is cracking down on unpaid internships at music companies. The government body has announced that it has written to various record labels and live firms to explain the rules regarding unpaid labour and that if they are not paying their interns the minimum wage they may be breaking the law.

Ticket tout sentenced for tax evasion

A London ticket tout had been handed a suspended prison sentence after failing to pay nearly £200,000 in tax. Donald Tiffin, of Park Road, Hampton Wick, had deposits of more than £915,000 in his own bank account and a further £656,000 had been paid into his girlfriend’s account.  The 63-year-old earned the cash by selling a range of tickets and packages to events including Wimbledon, the Champions League and the 2009 British Lions tour of South Africa and HM Revenue & Customs said the 63 year old failed to pay a total of £193,000 in income tax and VAT. Tiffin had admitted two counts of cheating the public revenue. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, for failing to pay income tax, and to 18 months, also suspended for two years, for failing to pay VAT. He was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and a compensation order in the sum of £193,000 was issued when he appeared at the Old Bailey.

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/10783627.Ticket_tout_failed_to_pay___193k_in_taxes/

Coachella tax threat

Skip Paige, the President of Goldenvoice, the AEG Live subsidiary that produces the Coachella Festival, has said he will move the event, and sister festival Stagecoach, if its current home city, Indio, introduces a new tax on large-scale entertainment events. 


A member of the Indio council, Sam Torres, has proposed a new city tax of 5-10% on ticket revenues for events attended by over 2500 people, which would include both the Coachella and Stagecoach festival ventures, staged at the city's Empire Polo Club.

Tax scandal avoidance reaches Take That

TAKE THAT became the latest celebrities caught up in the UK's tax avoidance scandal after PM David Cameron said yesterday he would look into a £480million investment scheme used by some band members. The Prime Minister also lashed out at comedian Jimmy Carr, branding his tax avoidance “morally wrong”. Carr has subsequently apologised for investing in the contentious scheme known as K2 after it was revealed that he had paid £3.3million a year into a Jersey-based fund which cut his tax bill to just 1per cent by loaning him money back.

Now an investigation has found that Take That stars Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Mark Owen and their manager Jonathan Wild ploughed £26 million into a music investment partnership run by Icebreaker Management which enables them to cut their tax liability dramatically. Over 1000 people contributed £480m to 62 music industry partnerships that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) claim act as tax shelters. Some commentators have called for Gary Barlow to be stripped of his recently awarded OBE if the claims are true. Lily Allen reportedly said "how are tax avoiders the moral equivalent of benefit cheats? Surely they're a hundred times worse"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jun/20/take-that-tax-avoidance-investigation?newsfeed=true

Hill tax blues

Lauryn Hill has been charged with failing to file income tax returns in the USA. Prosecutors say that the rapper failed to file returns for $1.6 million of income in the three years from 2005 - 2007. Hill, 37, an eight time Grammy winner, is due in the New Jersey District court on June 29th. If convicted, the 37-year-old mother of six faces a maximum of one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine on each count. 

UK arts community lambast government tax policy

Having been told that arts subsidies were being dramatically cut by the current UK Government, and that arts companies large and small should embrace private funding, sponsorship and philanthropic donations, the arts community has now discovered that George Osborne's latest budget cuts the amount of tax relief on charitable giving to just £50,000. Better news for film and TV where George Osborne vowed to “keep Wallace & Gromit exactly where they are” by introducing tax breaks for British animation, video games and certain “high-end” television productions. The Chancellor pledged tax breaks for certain productions, after major businesses including Wallace and Gromit-creator Aardman Animations warned they would have to move production overseas because they could no longer compete in Britain.