Lewis Hamilton's £16 Million Private Jet.

[Khandro]

Isn't it better to spend his money like this than have it in a bank account on or offshore?

[TheChair]

Nobody is objecting to him spending money on a jet, it's avoiding paying the VAT, that's the problem.

[Trawlerman]

Good luck to him since time immemorial its has been customary to cheat the "revenue" what do we think the old time smugglers were up to. Good accountants and financial adveisers are worth their weight in gold.

[Old_Geezer]

They're worth minus their weight in gold to the poor honest moral citizens who end up paying more to cover the legal fiddles they've found for their client.

[ToraToraTora]

yes

[Gromit]

// On the import of his jet a GBP 3.3 million VAT refund was given based on a British Virgin Island Leasing structure. Hamilton's advisers formed a VAT-registered leasing business on the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man company, named Stealth (IOM) Limited, leased the jet from Hamilton's British Virgin Islands company, Stealth Aviation Limited, and imported it into the Isle of Man. It was then leased on to a UK jet management company that provided Hamilton with a crew and other services - and which leased it back to Hamilton and his Guernsey company, BRV Limited. //

So nothing fishy there then.

[DTCwordfan]

The international system allows it - and the IoMan has hundreds if not thousands of these wealthy corporate/private jets registered. It's unfair to single out LH - I would do it to minimise my tax exposure if I had his sort of wealth and wanted my own jet - personally though, I would use Netjets...more value in that to paying for usage..... So if they want to close this off, then it's the system that should be looked at.

[New Judge]

"Nobody is objecting to him spending money on a jet, it's avoiding paying the VAT, that's the problem."

This is a fuss about nothing. VAT being what it is (an inequitous but above all the most cumbersome tax ever devised) Mr Hamilton would not have paid the VAT anyway. "Lewis Hamilton plc" (or whatever it's called) is a company and, with a turnover undoubtedly considerably north of £85k, it will be registered for VAT. If Lewis Hamilton plc had paid VAT on the aircraft it would simply have been claimed back when the company's VAT return was done in th esame way that a builder reclaims VAT on tools and materials he buys. If the government wants to collect "Purchase Tax" it needs to come up with a better idea than VAT.

[HansUrbancka]

Hamilton and his Advisers went through a lot of complications to get a VAT refund if it were a straightforward matter to have £3.3m returned by HMRC.

Perhaps New Judge is able to suggest a reason for such complications as have been detailed above by Gromit.

Hans.

[Khandro]

I was thinking more along the lines of spending money being better than hoarding it from the point of view of so many people have been employed in the making and now and maintaining this machine, all presumably paying taxes on their earnings and a lot of VAT will have been collected from the materials used in its manufacture, what goes around, comes around.
Harping on about the VAT on the plane itself, seems a bit churlish.
Also his money is earned by working (driving in GPs) on every continent in the world. I have a feeling that there is just a tad of envy being shown here by his critics.

[emmie]

good luck to the boy if he wants to splash the cash on a jet, so be it.

[dave50]

Anybody would avoid paying tax if they could, I know I would but I cant because I am on PAYE.

[ichkeria]

What seems churlish and greedy to me is going to all that trouble to save 3million when you have enough money to spend on a private jet

Knighthood on hold I would suggest :-)

[Bazile]

ichkeria
I would suspect that a lot of Knighthoods will need to be taken
back ( or whatever the process is called ) if 'LH's knighthood' should be put on hold :-)

[New Judge]

"Perhaps New Judge is able to suggest a reason for such complications as have been detailed above by Gromit."

I don't think the arrangements were simply to avoid the VAT on the purchase price. They seem to be a way of deferring the running costs of the aircraft as well.

If a VAT registered builder buys tools for £100 and pays £20 VAT on top, when he does his VAT returns the £20 is credited to him and is deducted from the VAT he owes HMRC (which he has collected from his customers). Of course any of his customers who are VAT-registered can also claim the VAT back that the builder has charged them (being credited against the VAT they owe the VATman from the tax they have collected from their customers). A more convoluted way of collecting what is, effectively, an end user purchase tax (with nearly everybody else being eligible to reclaim most of the VAT they paid) is hard to imagine. Abolishing it (which the UK can only do after Brexit as VAT is an EU requirement) and replacing it with something a little simpler (which even a child of ten could devise) would save an enormous sum which is currently spent administering this farce. As a result not so much tax would need to be collected. Or at least that which is collected could be put to better use that paying armies of scribes an inspectors to check on the collection, payment and reclaim nonsense which adds to the overheads of every business.

[douglas9401]

Well I for one trust our masters to deal fairly with a replacement for VAT should it ever come about.

I imagine something along the lines of using the VAT included price as a benchmark then adding, say, 15% would be par for the course on this rip-off backwater we live in with further increases 'just because'.

As for Mr Hamilton, I can barely manage a shrug. His worth as a commodity has been decided by sponsors and employers and it's surely up to him to try and stretch his meagre earnings as far as they'll go in these lean times. :-)

[Deskdiary]

Gromit has found something that smells of fish where no such smell exists.

As it stands what Hamilton has done is legitimate. Ergo it is without the smell of fish.

[theshedman]

He hasn't done anything illegal as the law stands and at least he bought a plane where many of the parts are probably made in the UK.

[hereIam]

I'm not bothered whether he has a private jet or not.

[Khandro]

ichi //What seems churlish and greedy to me is going to all that trouble to save 3million when you have enough money to spend on a private jet//

Save 3 million here and 3 million there and you're soon talking big money. :0)

[HansUrbancka]

//I don't think the arrangements were simply to avoid the VAT on the purchase price. They seem to be a way of deferring the running costs of the aircraft as well. ??

NJ...How can what LH has done be a way to defer the running costs of his aircraft. Come on, be realistic and acknowledge that it was all a ploy to get more money into his small bank account.

@Khandro.......I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. All materials for the building of Aircrafts and Commercial Ships are Zero Rated.

Hans.

Hans.