Philip Green

[Not So Wise]

Dumb question, no doubt, but exactly how do you legally pay a dividend four times bigger than your pre-tax profits?

Don't consider it dumb, whole thing confuse's me, Especially as way i read it the "group" is taking out a loan just to pay this payout, that seems...well nuts to me. Guessing he must have damn good accountants that have found some pretty major loopholes, be interesting to see if any of the resident accountants here can explain how it works, from the loan to the tax's

[stackpole]

If you lot think that agencies are "creaming it" then what do you think about Philip Green?

Good luck to him.

[ratewhore]

wonder how much he pays to the labour party? Not that thats relevant of course...

[wendigo100]

wonder how much he pays to the labour party? Not that thats relevant of course...

Does he?

I can never understand why any successful businessmen would ever want to donate money to them, except for personal gain.

Aren't Labour the complete antithesis to everything business stands for?

[BoredBloke]

OLd Labour were but this lot are quite good for big business - it's the little guys they put the squeeze on.

[simondolan]

tax

Guessing he must have damn good accountants that have found some pretty major loopholes, be interesting to see if any of the resident accountants here can explain how it works, from the loan to the tax's

Fairly straightforward really. A dividend must be paid from retained profits, so, say the group has made £500m each year for the past 4 years, and not paid a dividend, they could pay a dividend in year 4 of £2bn.

They would have needed to have taken a loan because they woudn't have that £2bn in cash - it would be tied up in buildings, debtors, stock and so on, so the bank lends the £2bn to pay his dividend, secured on the assets of the business.

[DimPrawn]

If you guys want to do this all you have to do is.

1. Buy or rent a place in a tax haven.
2. Pay for your missus to live there as an expat.
3. Pay her the big divvies and pray the pool cleaner is ugly.

Simple really.

[BoredBloke]

Does this mean that I can be employed by my wife and she can get the dividend payments in the same way that Mrs Green does? Ok she lives here and would still have to pay her chunk of tax due.

[malvolio]

But then you'd be S660a'd... Thisis what gets me confused - the Artic case really revolved around Mrs Arctic's money being availble back to Mr ARctic, which is why they're being done for the tax. Phil Green, who is a UK resident, also benfits directly from the money passed to Mrs Green - so where's the difference in the two situations...?

Don;t have a problem with him earning it, but the tax laws ought to applied evenly, surely?

[DimPrawn]

Don;t have a problem with him earning it, but the tax laws ought to applied evenly, surely?

Now that is funny....