David Beckham's Tax Dodging Tactics Revealed, Here's Everything You Need to Know
Here's a Major Revelation About David Beckham's Tax Payments
Investigative journalist Tom Bower is all set to release his highly anticipated book, The House of Beckham: Money, Sex, and Power, on 20th June this year. In this book, the lives of the Beckham family will be thoroughly explored including some shocking tidbits. Perhaps the most shocking revelation is that the football star was accused of using various strategies to avoid paying taxes. The author also assumes that this threatened David Beckham’s chances of being a Knighthood. Here’s everything that you would want to know about Beckham and his tax affairs.
1. Beckham's Shift to Real Madrid
In 2003, Manchester United accepted a huge offer from Real Madrid for Beckham. After his move to Real Madrid, Beckham didn't pay British taxes on the income that he earned outside the UK. Bower said, “Legally avoiding British taxes appealed to Beckham. As a non-dom in Spain, he was not paying British taxes on income earned outside Britain. And he was not paying National Insurance. The genius of it was that no one in Britain realized that Beckham had become a tax exile. Instead, the public believed that he was a global success who paid his taxes in Britain," as reported by the Mirror.
2. High-Profile Career
Apart from playing with Manchester United and Real Madrid, Beckham also played for Los Angeles Galaxy and Paris Saint-Germain. He also played a significant role in PSG's Ligue 1 title win before announcing his retirement, as reported by Business Insider. As per the author, these high-profile career moves often seemed to be influenced by tax considerations. Bower also alleged, “Beckham would reject the possibility of returning to the UK to play for Chelsea, would move to America rather than return to Britain, and would play for a season in France before the financial year ended."
3. Beckham Invested in Film Financing Scheme
Beckham was also accused of investing in Ingenious film financing schemes with a view of enjoying the tax relief provisions. Ingenious, which has funded movies such as Avatar, could benefit from tax incentives introduced to foster the UK movie industry. However, HMRC accused Ingenious of leveraging these breaks to claim relief on the artificial losses from its projects to avoid taxes. Speaking about this, Bower also said, “Like other investors, Beckham had to pay the outstanding taxes which HMRC had demanded."
4. Missed Taxes
Beckham was a director of at least 19 companies in Britain and more overseas. Bower claimed, “Over the years the ownership of those companies – Footwork Productions, David Beckham Ventures, Victoria Beckham Ltd and many subsidiaries – and their inter-company trading had puzzled even a diligent forensic accountant about the businesses." The House of Beckham also reveals that Beckham's accountants for Seven Global Holding Company Limited forgot about $11.3 million in taxes withheld by the German government until Bower's forensic accountant discovered it, according to Mirror.
5. Here's How Beckham Responded
In a bid to counter Bower’s allegations about Beckham being involved in tax evasion while in Real Madrid, Beckham’s spokesperson pointed out that Beckham paid all his taxes in Spain and other countries as was necessary. She said that it was normal to file accounts late since the deals were often complicated. A source also spoke against some of the claims made by Bower. The source said that the Beckham's "tax affairs are of course fully in order and have been duly filed, audited and approved by HMRC."
