In these times it often seems that the differences in earnings between the richest and the poorest in society is greater than it has ever been. It is certainly true on an international basis. Sure, in the past there were some exceedingly wealthy individuals and some exceedingly poor. The difference now is that there are more who are wealthy and more who are very poor. Like so many, I have complained about the obscene amounts of money that investment bankers and their like pay themselves, but compared with Premier League footballers, even bankers seem poor. Apparently, HMR&C have decided it's time to target the underpayment of tax by these very much over-paid sportsmen. No doubt some footballers move money overseas just like banks and bankers but the scheme that HMR&C doesn't like is the one involving image rights. Great chunks of money are paid to footballers - and others, I suppose - for their image rights and it is normal for players to sign two contracts with their clubs; one for their hire and one for image rights. The image rights are paid into a separate limited company and companies, of course, pay only 28% corporation tax as apposed to the 50% payable by an individual as income tax. If one of the footballers finds himself stuck for cash, he can top up his playing salary by taking out a loan from the company and pay just 2% in tax on a loan which is considered a benefit in kind. In the last two years Wayne Rooney, for example, has taken £1.6 million as loans to help keep his head above water. I can understand now that if his finances were so stretched that he needed an extra £1.6 million to keep the wolf from the door, he really did need to get Manchester United to increase his total pay beyond £200,000 per week.
As is stated so often, the rich only pay taxes voluntarily; the rest of us pay taxes, whatever. We are even asked to pay in advance if HMR&C thinks we may perhaps earn more than they can get their hands on immediately. They are, after all, as money grabbers for the government, very desperate for cash. I hope they manage to extract more from the footballers, who should be paying most of their tax at 50%.
Talking of the very wealthy, what is Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt doing about Murdoch's News International's attempt to take over total control of BSkyB? For more than 3 weeks now he has had the Ofcom report which, quite unequivocally made the recommendation that the proposed merger should be put before the Competition Commission. There would seem to be no reason why that could not have been done immediately the minister received the report. It is suggested that at this time Mr Hunt - who is a well-known appreciator of the wondrous merits of the Murdoch clan - is in discussions with News International - ie Rupert Murdoch - about ways and means of avoiding the referral. If he thinks he can get away with this he is deluded to the point of being crackers. The responsibility on this matter was taken away from Vince Cable because he had stated publicly his opposition to this deal, even before the Ofcom report was received. We now have a Culture Secretary who is known to be very pro-Murdoch and in no way will those opposed to the take-over of BSkyB allow him to do some underhand deal with a man much disliked by many in the UK. Mr Murdoch in charge of a broadcasting empire three times the size of the BBC is not something to be encouraged.
It's another grey old day and in Australia, the England cricket team have lost the third One Day International in a row to Australia. Bad News. England bowling was not up to much with Anderson, Broad and Bresnan missing and some of the batting was a bit dodgy; plus they let Hussey make a lot of runs again.
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