The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Was Fawcett’s salary paid to his company in a bid to avoid tax?

- By Jon Ungoed-Thomas

THE charity pay packet of Prince Charles’s closest aide was paid for three years into the former valet’s catering company – avoiding the need to shell out on payroll taxes.

The Dumfries House charity paid £311,000 into Michael Fawcett’s events hospitalit­y company Premier Mode Ltd between 2015 and 2018, according to an analysis of its accounts. The money was for his role as the charity’s executive director and for services provided by his company. Premier Mode was separately paid more than £300,000 by the charity over the same period for organising events.

Ministers have launched a series of crackdowns on schemes in which bosses’ salaries and fees are paid into private companies to reduce income tax and National Insurance payments.

The Prince’s Foundation – the new name for the Dumfries House charity – may now face questions about why these funds were paid ‘off payroll’ to Mr Fawcett. There is no suggestion the arrangemen­t was in breach of tax laws.

Graham Smith of Republic, which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy, said: ‘This looks like a questionab­le arrangemen­t. We need to be told how much money was paid to this company, how much tax was paid and who made the decision to make these payments.’ Between 2015 and 2018, the charity made payments of £173,000 to Premier Mode ‘with respect to the Executive Director’s role within the Trust’ and £138,000 for services provided by the company.

It also paid £18,170 to a filming company between 2015 and 2018 where Mr Fawcett’s son Oliver is a director.

The charity and Mr Fawcett declined to comment but a source said that the accounts were independen­tly audited and published each year.

 ??  ?? closest aide: Charles Fawcett
closest aide: Charles Fawcett

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