Tax avoidance company threatens to sue Deloitte
Icebreakers Management, the company behind the tax avoidance scheme used by pop band Take That, has threatened Deloitte with legal action.
Icebreaker Management created the Icebreakers tax avoidance scheme which was used by Take That stars Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen, amongst thousands of other investors to shelter more than £300 million.
Deloitte represented Icebreaker Management in court in the company’s High Court battle against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last year when HMRC tried to close the scheme down.
The Tribunal judge ruled that the Icebreaker scheme was known and ‘understood by all concerned’ to be a tax avoidance scheme, which resulted in its investors facing millions of pounds in tax repayments.
Icebreaker Management denied selling or promoting tax avoidance structures.
According to the Times, Deloittes was sacked by Icebreakers for breach of duties after its head of tax policy, who was not involved in the case, wrote an article for a tax magazine which said: ‘We should congratulate the tribunal on the insight and plain speaking which makes it clear there cannot possibly be a successful appeal…’
Caroline Hamilton, founder of Icebreakers said the comments were in clear breach of Deloitte’s duties as Icebreaker’s instructing solicitors to act at all times in its best interests and not to allow its own interest to conflict with Icebreaker’s.
Icebreaker has appointed Rosenblatt Solicitors to ‘take action’ against the firm if necessary, and the company said it is possible this may result in a bid to claim for damages against Deloitte.
Source: citywire
