Photograph by James Harland
Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles has accepted “full responsibility” for his part in a tax avoidance scheme where he claimed to be a second-hand car salesman.
Under the scheme, the 40-year-old DJ pretended to have made a loss as a Working Wheels salesman to avoid paying tax on £1 million of his income between 2007 and 2008.
On Twitter, he said:
I want to comment about a recent tribunal tax ruling.
— Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) February 21, 2014
Upon advice, I signed up to a scheme which I was assured was legal. Despite this, my knowledge of the dealings of the scheme were naive.
— Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) February 21, 2014
I'm not a tax expert and acted on advice I was given. This was a mistake and I accept the ruling without reservation.
— Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) February 21, 2014
I take full responsibility and have learnt a valuable lesson.
— Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) February 21, 2014
Moyles made his comments after a tribunal ruled against him, with Judge Colin Bishopp saying:
“It is however quite clear from the statement that he too entered the scheme for no purpose other than to achieve a tax saving, and that he took no interest in the trade”
Exchequer Secretary David Gauke said on the ruling:
This case is another example of why taxpayers should not fall for the promises of promoters selling schemes that are all too often too good to be true. Not only will the taxpayer waste money on the fees for these failed schemes, they will still have to pay all the tax, interest and penalties that are due.
This Government has provided HMRC with the resources to tackle these avoidance schemes and HMRC will now pursue the other users of the scheme to make sure all the taxes that are due are paid.
Twitter users were unsurprisingly unhappy with another public figure using an illegal tax avoidance scheme, and took to the social network to comment on the case:
Turn out Chris moyles dodged tax by pretending to be a 2nd hand car salesman. sounds par for the course. He pretended to be funny for years
— Pete Hotchkiss (@petehotchkiss) February 22, 2014
The remarkable thing about the Chris Moyles tax story is that he has earned so much money. Not bad for someone with a huge talent deficit.
— George Smiley (@364690) February 22, 2014
The accountancy firm NT Advisors sold the Working Wheels scheme to 450 fund managers, celebrities and other high earners between 2006 and 2008, costing the country an estimated £290 million, and this is the fourth time that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have one a case against the firm.
The 450 other users of the scheme will be contacted directly and asked to pay the tax they owe, or face accelerated litigation.
