Jimmy Carr admits ‘terrible error of judgement’ on tax

The popular comedian Jimmy Carr was on Tuesday accused of having £3.3m sheltered from UK tax through a Jersey-based scheme.

The revelations prompted David Cameron to tell Channel 4 News that the use of the scheme was morally wrong.

On Thursday morning, the presenter and comedian formally responded for the first time and apologised:

“I appreciate as a comedian, people will expect me to ‘make light’ of this situation, but I’m not going to in this statement as this is obviously a serious matter,” he said in a statement that was also released on Twitter.

“I met with a financial adviser and he said to me ‘Do you want to pay less tax? It’s totally legal’. I said ‘Yes’. I now realise I’ve made a terrible error of judgment.

Although I’ve been advised the K2 Tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly. Jimmy Carr

“Although I’ve been advised the K2 tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly.”

Mr Carr was heckled about the rate of tax he pays while doing a gig on Tuesday night, but answered: “I pay what I have to and not a penny more”.

I rejected tax scheme of Carr’s advisers, Mick Hucknall tells Channel 4 News. Political Correspondent Michael Crick writes: “The singer Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, told me: “If you asked the man on the street would he like to pay less tax, I think you’d get a resounding yes. Most artists aren’t accountants and rely on their management to seek advice on how to handle their affairs. I’m sure the vast majority wish to do that within the law.
“For the prime minister to single out an individual was inappropriate. I look forward to reading the Times’s analysis of News International‘s tax arrangements in the coming days. For the record we were approached by the company concerned and my management judged it to be too close to the border of what is in fact a very blurred line.”

Follow Michael on Twitter: @MichaelLCrick

The revelations about the use of tax avoidance schemes by Jimmy Carr and some members of Take That prompted the government to pledge to further tackle this issue.

Speaking on Channel 4 News, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the government was “trying to get the tax man one step ahead of the tax avoider” adding: “people who aggressively avoid tax are the moral equivalent of people who cheat the benefit system.”

Mr Alexander declined to comment on any individual currently in the news as a result of their tax arrangements, unlike the prime minister, who on Wednesday told Channel 4 News’ Political Editor Gary Gibbon:

“Frankly some of these schemes where people are parking huge amounts of money offshore and taking loans back to minimise their tax rates, it is not morally acceptable. Those people who work hard, who pay their taxes, and out of that post-tax income, save up to go and see Jimmy Carr – he’s taking that money and stuffing it into something where he doesn’t have to pay taxes. That is not fair. That is not right. It isn’t morally right.”

HMRC has said that the K2 tax scheme is already under investigation, and Treasury Minister David Gauke warned on Thursday that people using it could yet face bills for more tax:

“Very often these schemes fail and HMRC, if at all possible, will close down the schemes and also recover the tax, because if they don’t work they don’t work.”

Labour leader Ed Miliband said on Wednesday night: “I think what the politicians need to do is – if the wrong thing is happening – change the law to prevent that tax avoidance happening.”