UK MPs slam BBC for complicity in tax avoidance
05 Oct 2012
Members of the British parliament have accused the BBC of helping thousands of staff members, including high profile presenters to avoid paying tax.
According to The Telegraph, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report had claimed that the BBC could be 'complicit' in tax avoidance by letting staff to be paid not as individuals but as if they were companies.
The report into the tax arrangements revealed that the BBC had 25,000 'off payroll' contracts which allowed staff to pay less tax.
The paper said 4,500 contributors at the BBC were paid through personal service companies, which included 1,500 'on-screen' presenters, contributors, actors, musicians and commentators.
Under a personal service company, the recipients can pay corporation tax of 21 per cent on the company's earnings, instead of income tax at up to 50 per cent.
According to Margaret Hodge, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, who spoke to the paper, the practice was 'staggeringly inappropriate' adding paying regular contributors this way gave rise to 'suspicions of complicity in tax avoidance'.
