Chris Moyles takes to Twitter to explain involvement in tax avoidance scheme
Former Radio 1 DJ, Chris Moyles has posted a series of tweets on the social media website after claiming to be a second-hand car dealer, in order to avoid paying tax on £1 million. Moyles, who was the host of Radio 1’s Breakfast Show, claimed to have "engaged in self-employment as a used car trader" in a judgement published by the First-Tier Tribunal Tax Chamber on Friday (21 February). The “Working Wheels” tax-avoidance scheme was used by around 450 other celebrities and wealthy figures, with Moyles claiming to have suffered a loss of more than £1 million through his involvement, which could have resulted in him avoiding a payment of £400,000.In the report, Judge Colin Bishopp said: "Mr Moyles, as I have said, did not give oral evidence, and I had from him only a very brief and rather uninformative statement."It is however quite clear from the statement that he, too, entered the scheme for no purpose other than to achieve a tax saving, and that he took no interest in the trade".Moyles took to Twitter to speak about the scheme, which he called “a mistake”, tweeting:"I want to comment about a recent tribunal tax ruling"."Upon advice, I signed up to a scheme which I was assured was legal. Despite this, my knowledge of the dealings of the scheme were naive"."I'm not a tax expert and acted on advice I was given. This was a mistake and I accept the ruling without reservation"."I take full responsibility and have learnt a valuable lesson".Not surprisingly, other Twitter users were less than sympathetic:
@CHRISDJMOYLES It a concious decision to avoid paying what you should, you knew what you were doing, now stop bleating!
— Lindsay Martin (@WingyMartin) February 21, 2014@BiscuitAhoy @CHRISDJMOYLES Of course he did, and acting all naive now is an insult to every single tax payer in the country.
— Joey The Don (@TeamNJDon) February 22, 2014