THE TAX DODGE PARASITES
MORE tax parasites were shamed in leaks last night.
Lewis Hamilton, Apple and three Mrs Brown’s Boys stars all sent cash offshore and avoided huge bills.
Jeremy Corbyn said: “Tens of billions are being leeched.”
THREE stars of cult sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys spent £2million in an offshore tax-avoidance scheme, the Paradise Papers show.
Patrick Houlihan, and Martin and Fiona Delany put their fees from a production company owned by Brendan O’Carroll, the creator and star of the show and real-life father of Fiona, into firms they controlled on the tropical island of Mauritius.
The cash was moved around and ultimately “loaned” back to the actors. Similar schemes have been challenged by the taxman.
Amanda Woods – Betty in the show – and her husband, Danny O’Carroll, who plays Buster, signed up for the scheme but did not use it.
Houlihan, who plays Dermot, said the three joined the scheme on advice of accountants and he did not really understand it, adding: “You never knew what the f*** was going on.” He insisted they had only been seeking to defer tax bills, not avoid them, and claimed he always had reservations about signing up.
Houlihan, 34, admitted he was worried the scheme was the same as one used by comic Jimmy Carr in 2012. Then PM David Cameron described it as “morally wrong”.
While the schemes are not illegal this revelation will embarrass the cast and the BBC.
Accountant Roy Lyness, who put the stars in touch with the advisers behind the set-up, was the man behind the K2 scheme used by Carr.
Mr Lyness said he was “bound by client confidentiality as well as the Data Protection Act not to divulge confidential information”.
MP Meg Hillier, who chairs the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “If it’s not outside the actual rules it’s certainly way outside the spirit of the rules.”