I tweeted this:
One of Corbyn's keyboard warriors was quick to respond:
So Coogan, who hectored the crowd last night about "austerity", wants to pay more tax does he? I wonder....
There is absolutely nothing preventing Coogan from being, like me, self-employed. All his income could simply be paid to him and he could then pay income tax on it. But it is more tax-efficient (ie he can minimise his payments to the NHS, the police, education, the army etc) by setting up a limited company. In fact, Coogan has set up a complex web of numerous companies and has used company law to say that they are not "a group". Accordingly, he can shield most of his financial stuff from prying eyes by declaring that the individual companies are "small" and so only have to submit limited and unaudited "abbreviated" accounts to public scrutiny. No doubt "Jeremy" wholly approves of this lawful skullduggery - at least if he could understand it (the person his cult-following want in charge in the country has been living off the taxpayer for 34 years and has gold-plated pensions yet even though his tax affairs are the simplest imaginable he couldn't complete his tax return a couple of years ago and was fined £100 by HMRC! Still at least he has got his son, Seb, on the gravy train too - working for would-be Marxist Chancellor, John MacDonnell!)
I am not a company lawyer nor account but let's have a look at Coogan's sprawling business empire. Of course, it is possible that Coogan has offshore assets and businesses so this only relates to what is publicly available in the UK.
We start with there is Baby Cow Productions Limited. In 2015 one of Coogan's co-directors was an, er, accountant. There were charges against the company from German and Dutch banks. This may have been legitimate fund-raising or it could be a mechanism to reduce company profits and, therefore, the tax that Coogan is apparently so keen to pay. Alas, because he has used the system to only file "small company accounts" we simply can't tell.
But Coogan mysteriously also set up a whole host of subsidiary companies to shift money around. Here is the entry from the accounts of 31st March, 2016 when the company was still owned by Coogan and a chap called Carroll:
And Coogan was shifting cash around his companies as three of them owed Baby Cow Productions Limited considerable sums. Indeed, debt had been deliberately loaded onto the subsidiaries between 2015 and 2016. Once again, there may be perfectly legitimate reasons for this. Equally, such transactions are often used to (lawfully) defer and/or minimise tax.
Coogan is a director of Baby Cow Animation Limited and again uses the "small company" routine to only file limited accounts. Two charges are registered as outstanding - one from a Canadian Bank and one from the, er, BBC. This company itself has two subsidiaries. The first, Baby Cow Animation (Warren) Limited, (Director S. J. Coogan) satisfied a charge to Barclays Bank in 2016. It is ultimately now owned by the BBC via Baby Cow Productions Limited.
The second subsidiary (Director - S. J. Coogan) Baby Cow Animation (Wussywat) Limited has an outstanding charge to a Canadian Bank. Once again there may be good reason for this - perhaps Coogan and his advisers are cleverly shifting risk on media projects onto banks? Or perhaps, again, interest on loans is used to depress taxable profits?
On we go through this tangled web...
Baby Cow Pictures Limited is now ultimately owned by the BBC but Coogan remains a director.
Baby Cow Films Limited has been ultimately owned by the BBC since Coogan sold it to them on 1st April, 2016. He remains a director. There were charges on the company whilst he owned it to RBS. As ever with Coogan - there are yet more subsidiaries - three in this case. The first Lost Child Limited had the aforementioned Mr Carroll as a director but not Coogan. Again, only abbreviated accounts are filed but this company appears (and once again I am not an accountant) to be a vehicle for claiming tax relief via film tax credits. In the last set of accounts the taxpayer owed this company over 120k for "corporation tax recoverable" ie they were not paying tax - they were clawing it back!
Subsidiary two - Alan Partridge Limited - of course has Coogan as a director but appears to be dormant save for outstanding charges - including to the BBC. Subsidiary three - is as per Lost Child but claims to have "intangible assets" - presumably film rights etc - of over £8 million although, as ever, the "small companies" status is claimed.
Baby Cow Films (Zoe) Limited was only set up in 2016 and has yet to file accounts. Coogan is a director.
Coogan remains a director of Baby Cow Manchester Limited (which also claims small company status) had nearly half a million quid in the bank in 2015 but this disappeared by 2016 - seemingly when the BBC became ultimate controller of the company.
Baby Cow Productions (Hunderby) Limited owed half a million quid to BP Productions on the last day of Coogan's ownership. Once again money was being shifted around between various Coogan companies and their subsidiaries. The BBC took over the company in 2016 but our man remains a director.
And on and on it goes.... Coogan remains a director of Baby Cow Productions (Red Dwarf) Limited - now ultimately controlled by the BBC. On the last day of Coogan's ownership it had over £300k in the bank although it appears (and I put it no higher than that) this was money owed to another Coogan company.
Lola Baby Cow Limited had Mr Carroll as a director but was dissolved in 2015. It is not clear whether Coogan had any connection with this company although the name suggests it was part of the "non-Group".
Coogan is an active director of The Last Holiday Limited which was only set up in 2016 and is yet to file documents with Companies House. The initial subscriber to the Company was Baby Cow Films Limited.
The "socialist millionaire" is the sole director and shareholder of Conor Hamill Limited - in the last accounts there was £108k in the bank. As ever, he claims small company exemption so that he only has to file unaudited abbreviated accounts.
Comedy Republic Limited was another Coogan/Carroll double act but was dissolved in 2015.
What I have yet to find out is how much of OUR licence fee money that we pay to the BBC was used by them to buy out Coogan in 2016 (answers on a postcard please). Another matter arises in that Coogan retains directorships in the BBC-controlled companies and their business relationship needs to be declared if they are covering his inane political witterings.
Last night when he was supporting The Terrorists' Friend, Corbyn, he pandered to the hard-left cultists by having a go at Rupert Murdoch and the morons roared their support. Yet even though he is still involved in the BBC-controlled companies this f*cking hypocrite took his latest series of "The Trip" to, er, Sky TV (prop R. Murdoch Esq). So quite happy to stick his snout in the Murdoch trough but then p*ss on him. Nice!
One imagines that on his (alleged) drugs and hookers binges he spent more in a week than most families live on for a whole year. Wikipedia (which, of course, is always accurate "lol") says he had a penchant for owning Ferraris and now enjoys travel by private jets. Whilst patronising Brummies with his rants about the homeless last night he neglected to mention that he paid a cool £2.35 million for his own agreeable house near Brighton.
I wonder if our above Twitter friend Ms Kate Martinson can enlighten us on how much tax Coogan actually pays? Why does he set up so many companies and shift money around between them? Perhaps he can explain his byzantine commercial network to "Jeremy" tonight at one of the rallies although that is probably a lost cause as the man some people - unbelievably - want to lead our country is notoriously as thick as sh*t.
As another "socialist comedian" might say, "Socialism My Arse!"
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