Post by QPR Report on May 16, 2010 5:53:15 GMT
Although beyond the headline, not exactly sure the impact.
I'm more focused on what the owners spend on the club (or take out of the club. How "involved" they are, and the makeup of the playing squad, etc.
The Times/Robert Watts
May 16, 2010
Top football clubs flee to tax havens
ALMOST three-quarters of Premier League football clubs, including Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City and Portsmouth, are based in offshore tax havens, an investigation has found.
Even smaller clubs in lower divisions, such as Ipswich Town and Hartlepool United, have joined the exodus, which allows wealthy owners legally to pour untaxed income into teams and foreign players to pay less tax.
The growing number of clubs controlled or owned through offshore companies has attracted the attention of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as part of a wide-ranging investigation into league sides. A senior Revenue source said the use of tax havens by football clubs “is one of the issues we are looking at”.
An examination of filings at Companies House by a chartered accountant found that 14 Premier League clubs, five Championship clubs, two Scottish sides and Hartlepool, a League One club, are based offshore. While this partly reflects the increasing foreign ownership of the Premier League, many clubs based in tax havens remain in British hands.
Blackburn Rovers is controlled by the family of Jack Walker, the late steel baron, through a trust in Jersey.
Championship side Ipswich Town is owned by Marcus Evans, the Liberal Democrat donor who is domiciled in the UK for tax purposes but owns his controlling stake in the club via an operation in Bermuda.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, which finished towards the bottom end of the Premier League this season, is owned by Steve Morgan, a construction magnate, through Bridgemere Investments in Guernsey.
Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian millionaire who sold the Harrods department store this month, owns Fulham through Mafco Holdings in Bermuda.
Portsmouth, which was forced into administration in February over £11.6m owed to HMRC, is controlled by a company based in the British Virgin Islands. The team has been relegated from the Premier League, as has offshore-owned Hull City.
The examination of the clubs’ filings was carried out for Christian Aid, the charity, by Richard Murphy, an accountant who is recognised internationally as an authority on tax havens and campaigns against them. Christian Aid is campaigning for greater corporate financial transparency.
Mike Warburton, a senior tax partner at accountants Grant Thornton, said: “The growing number of clubs owned through tax havens partially reflects just how attractive British football clubs have become to the world’s wealthy as an investment opportunity.
“British football clubs are important for our economy and it would be unwise for the government to do anything to jeopardise that.”
Manchester United’s holding company is based in Nevada and the club is controlled from Florida by the Glazer family, while arch-rival Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan through a Dubai-based company.
Birmingham City is 94%- owned by Birmingham International Holdings, a Cayman Islands company belonging to Carson Yeung Ka Sing, the club president. Yeung, from Hong Kong, left a career in hairdressing to make a fortune from sportswear and a casino.
The six other Premiership clubs based abroad are Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur.
The parent company of the Scottish club Hearts is UAB Ukio Banko Investicine Grupe, a Lithuanian bank controlled by the Russian-born Vladimir Romanov, whose family amassed a fortune by creating Lithuania’s first private bank.
Warburton said the biggest advantage of going offshore was that it allowed a wealthy owner to pour income that had not been taxed in the UK into British clubs.
He said the practice also enabled overseas stars to receive a substantial part of their earnings from the teams as image rights, which the clubs argue generate income around the globe and therefore should not incur full UK tax.
However, HMRC believes many image rights deals — which relate to a club’s earnings from merchandise and footage associated with players — are artificial. It has challenged dozens of teams over such payments. The Sunday Times approached three of the biggest offshore-based clubs — Manchester United, Birmingham City and Sunderland — but none made a comment.
Offshore football clubs
Manchester United
Country of Control: USA
Turnover: £256m
Tottenham
Bahamas
£115m
Sunderland
Jersey
£63m
Derby County
USA
£50m
Birmingham City
Cayman Islands
£50m
Ipswich Town
Bermuda
£16m
Portsmouth
British Virgin Islands
£71m
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Guernsey
£18m
Hearts
Lithuania
£9m
Hartlepool United
British Virgin Islands
£3.3m
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7127776.ece
I'm more focused on what the owners spend on the club (or take out of the club. How "involved" they are, and the makeup of the playing squad, etc.
The Times/Robert Watts
May 16, 2010
Top football clubs flee to tax havens
ALMOST three-quarters of Premier League football clubs, including Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City and Portsmouth, are based in offshore tax havens, an investigation has found.
Even smaller clubs in lower divisions, such as Ipswich Town and Hartlepool United, have joined the exodus, which allows wealthy owners legally to pour untaxed income into teams and foreign players to pay less tax.
The growing number of clubs controlled or owned through offshore companies has attracted the attention of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as part of a wide-ranging investigation into league sides. A senior Revenue source said the use of tax havens by football clubs “is one of the issues we are looking at”.
An examination of filings at Companies House by a chartered accountant found that 14 Premier League clubs, five Championship clubs, two Scottish sides and Hartlepool, a League One club, are based offshore. While this partly reflects the increasing foreign ownership of the Premier League, many clubs based in tax havens remain in British hands.
Blackburn Rovers is controlled by the family of Jack Walker, the late steel baron, through a trust in Jersey.
Championship side Ipswich Town is owned by Marcus Evans, the Liberal Democrat donor who is domiciled in the UK for tax purposes but owns his controlling stake in the club via an operation in Bermuda.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, which finished towards the bottom end of the Premier League this season, is owned by Steve Morgan, a construction magnate, through Bridgemere Investments in Guernsey.
Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian millionaire who sold the Harrods department store this month, owns Fulham through Mafco Holdings in Bermuda.
Portsmouth, which was forced into administration in February over £11.6m owed to HMRC, is controlled by a company based in the British Virgin Islands. The team has been relegated from the Premier League, as has offshore-owned Hull City.
The examination of the clubs’ filings was carried out for Christian Aid, the charity, by Richard Murphy, an accountant who is recognised internationally as an authority on tax havens and campaigns against them. Christian Aid is campaigning for greater corporate financial transparency.
Mike Warburton, a senior tax partner at accountants Grant Thornton, said: “The growing number of clubs owned through tax havens partially reflects just how attractive British football clubs have become to the world’s wealthy as an investment opportunity.
“British football clubs are important for our economy and it would be unwise for the government to do anything to jeopardise that.”
Manchester United’s holding company is based in Nevada and the club is controlled from Florida by the Glazer family, while arch-rival Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan through a Dubai-based company.
Birmingham City is 94%- owned by Birmingham International Holdings, a Cayman Islands company belonging to Carson Yeung Ka Sing, the club president. Yeung, from Hong Kong, left a career in hairdressing to make a fortune from sportswear and a casino.
The six other Premiership clubs based abroad are Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur.
The parent company of the Scottish club Hearts is UAB Ukio Banko Investicine Grupe, a Lithuanian bank controlled by the Russian-born Vladimir Romanov, whose family amassed a fortune by creating Lithuania’s first private bank.
Warburton said the biggest advantage of going offshore was that it allowed a wealthy owner to pour income that had not been taxed in the UK into British clubs.
He said the practice also enabled overseas stars to receive a substantial part of their earnings from the teams as image rights, which the clubs argue generate income around the globe and therefore should not incur full UK tax.
However, HMRC believes many image rights deals — which relate to a club’s earnings from merchandise and footage associated with players — are artificial. It has challenged dozens of teams over such payments. The Sunday Times approached three of the biggest offshore-based clubs — Manchester United, Birmingham City and Sunderland — but none made a comment.
Offshore football clubs
Manchester United
Country of Control: USA
Turnover: £256m
Tottenham
Bahamas
£115m
Sunderland
Jersey
£63m
Derby County
USA
£50m
Birmingham City
Cayman Islands
£50m
Ipswich Town
Bermuda
£16m
Portsmouth
British Virgin Islands
£71m
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Guernsey
£18m
Hearts
Lithuania
£9m
Hartlepool United
British Virgin Islands
£3.3m
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7127776.ece