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Frankie Boyle said: 'I am certain I pay more tax than most people in showbusiness and the cabinet.'
Comedy gold … Frankie Boyle said: 'I am certain I pay more tax than most people in showbusiness and the cabinet.' Photograph: Brian J Ritchie/Hotsauce/Rex
Comedy gold … Frankie Boyle said: 'I am certain I pay more tax than most people in showbusiness and the cabinet.' Photograph: Brian J Ritchie/Hotsauce/Rex

Frankie Boyle hits back over tax-avoidance claims

This article is more than 11 years old
'There's a lot of things people do to avoid paying tax and I don't do any of them,' tweets comedian after Daily Mail allegations

Comedian Frankie Boyle has strongly denied accusations of tax avoidance that appeared in the Daily Mail last week.

On Friday, the newspaper claimed Boyle "could have avoided paying nearly £900,000 tax through the voluntary liquidation of his firm last year", despite the fact that Boyle had recently mocked of fellow comedian Jimmy Carr for using another loophole to reduce his tax bill.

Boyle subsequently labelled the article "bollocks", revealing that he has paid "£2.7m in tax" over the last five years – "just under 40%" of his income.

The Daily Mail suggested that by winding up a company, Traskor Productions Limited, of which he is the sole director and shareholder, Boyle could have paid as little as 10% tax on the basis of "entrepreneur" tax relief, which would have saved him £880,762. The original article stresses that this practice would be entirely legal.

However, Boyle took to Twitter to defend himself: "There's a lot of things people do to avoid paying tax and I don't do any of them," he said.

"I wound my company up for legal reasons separate from tax and my accountant applied for tax relief on this … This tax relief is approximately half of the tax saving the Mail quoted in its article today."

He continued: "I am certain I pay more tax than most people in showbusiness and the cabinet."

In a recent column for the Scottish Sun, Boyle had joked: "Jimmy Carr has been attacked by Maxine Carr, who feels that he's ruined the good family name." He also wrote, "If you're rich, don't look at it as tax avoidance, look at it as a children's hospital buying you a pool table."

Carr, whose involvement in the K2 scheme led to him being singled out for criticism by David Cameron, has since apologised for what he called "terrible error of judgment".

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