‘£1m’ paid out in storm over stars’ tax
Warning of £745m hit to cover over-75s’ perk
BBC bosses have quietly paid up to £1million to staff, including top stars, after they were hit by a tax blunder.
We can reveal 300 presenters on radio and TV got a one-off payment of around £3,750 last month.
The cash was given to people affected by chiefs mistakenly telling them to register as self-employed.
Director-general Tony Hall made a public apology this week but did not mention the payments, which came days before a licence fee hike. We told back in 2017 how a row had erupted over tax legislation known as IR35, which affected top names like Fiona Bruce and Jeremy Paxman.
Many presenters had been told they had to be paid through personal service companies, allowing them to be taxed as firms rather than as individuals.
That meant they paid only 20 per cent corporation tax – but were then left facing huge bills for backdated amounts under an HMRC crackdown.
The BBC is now trying to reach a deal with HMRC to settle all the cases and Lord Hall told the Commons Public Accounts Committee this week he
“took no joy at all” from being at odds with presenters and other workers.
A BBC spokesman said: “This one-off payment was not a bonus, but given to affected individuals instead of expenses they were unable to claim whilst we worked through the changes to their employment status.”
But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: “It’s always the same with the BBC. They make a mistake and it is the taxpayer who pays.”