Next, it’s Mr Wayne Rooney
Another day and yet another high profile footballer is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. This time it is Wayne Rooney who is staring down the barrel of an additional £6 million tax bill after a film tax scheme he invested in went bust.
According to a Companies House announcement dated 11 September, the Invicta 43 scheme will be dissolved within the next two months.
Rooney, who is currently living in the US following his transfer from Manchester United to Washington’s DC United, is reported to have invested around £12.5 million in the partnership.
According to the Mirror, which first reported the story, Rooney was one of 225 investors in Invicta 43, which grouped together to buy the rights to two Hollywood films, Fred Claus and 10,000 BC.
Now before anyone starts shouting that he ‘deserves this for tax evasion’ I’d like to point out that there is NO suggestion that Rooney has not always paid all his UK taxes in full and in accordance with the law of the time.
Where retrospective rulings have been applied by HMRC, Rooney along with thousands of others have already paid any additional taxes that have been required of him. This is an additional £6 million tax bill to the sums he will have already paid.
We would take a bet that when Rooney first invested the £12.5 million, he would not have been made aware of the risks attached to the scheme or the likelihood of an HMRC enquiry, and we’re pretty certain his ‘advisers’ will have received a significant non-refundable commission for arranging his investment.
We’ll pose a question we’ve asked before, where are the investigations into those who promote these schemes? We don’t see their names being splashed across the press, or their character being questioned.
One of our major roles at IYE is to prevent our clients from entering into fraudulent schemes or investments or which like these, schemes that could cause future problems. We have a range of investigative services to suit clients both large and small and are happy to discuss and fully investigate any potential investment and provide clear, simple to follow advice on the legitimacy of a proposed investment along with the people associated with it.
If you’d like to undertake full due diligence to ensure the investment you’re considering is genuine, please call us on: +44 (0)20 8914 7923 or use our contact form on the IYE Global website.
