Big breaks on major movies
CELEBRITIES invested in legal movie partnerships after the Government introduced new tax reliefs in 1992.
Schemes allowed them to claim tax relief on cash stumped up for blockbuster films.
But in recent years HMRC argued the likes of the Ingenious Film Partners scheme – which funded movies such as Life of Pi – created artificial losses for investors and classed them as tax avoidance schemes.
HMRC said: “Tax avoidance doesn’t pay. Most schemes simply don’t work. People can end up paying more than they were trying to avoid in their misguided attempts to save money.”
It announced two years ago it had won two major battles worth £820million in owed tax and interest and involving films.
Bosses said people had claimed more in tax than they invested.