Furious license fee payers have called for the BBC to axe Mrs Brown’s Boys amid the revelation some of its stars are part of a tax avoidance scheme.
The explosive Paradise Papers revealed yesterday that three stars of the hit sitcom allegedly piled some £2million into an offshore fund in Mauritius.
Actors Paddy Houlihan, Fiona O’Carroll and Martin Delany, have all been named as members of the scheme.
In light of the allegations, taxpayers took to social media to demand the BBC scrap the comedy – shortly after its makers celebrated their BAFTA success on Twitter.
Furious license fee payers have called for the BBC to axe Mrs Brown’s Boys – and mocked the stars of the show
Fiona O’Carroll, who plays Maria Brown (far left), Paddy Houlihan who plays Dermot (second left) and Martin Delany, who plays Trevor (fifth from left with glasses) are named in the Paradise Papers. Mrs Brown’s Boys star Brendan O’Carroll is not involved
Fiona O’Carroll – the daughter of the show’s creator Brendan O’Carroll – who plays Maria and her husband, Martin Delany, who plays Trevor, are said to have diverted their money into the scheme.
Mr Houlihan, who plays Agnes Brown’s son Dermot on the BBC hit, claims he joined the Mauritius scheme after advice from British accountant Roy Lyness – who also advised Jimmy Carr.
But he said he ‘never knew what the f*** was going on’ with his money.
Mr Lyness also does the accounts for the Mrs Brown’s Boys global operation – but Brendan O’Carroll, who plays Mrs Brown, did not use the Mauritius scheme.
However appearing on BBC’s Panorama last night, he told presenter Richard Bilton he pays the actors in the UK and ‘cannot control what happens afterwards’.
He told Panorama he had ‘never been part of any tax avoidance scheme’, adding: ‘I reserve the right to take the most severe legal action available to me – that is lawyer speak.
‘I would have just said, f*** off.’
But taxpayers have expressed their outrage at the revelation.
Some taxpayers have expressed their outrage at the revelation – while others have seen the ‘funny’ side of it
One Twitter user wrote: ‘Will BBC drop Mrs Brown’s Boys over tax avoidance claims? If it were sexual harassment claims they’d be gone #bbcresponsibility’.
Matt Dickinson added: ‘Mrs brown’s boys have been up to no good.
‘Cancel it immediately. I am disgusted’
Mark Edwards tweeted: ‘Shame that you deliberately avoid paying tax, what is funny about that?’
And Tony Macklin said: ‘If the cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys get done for tax evasion it will literally be the funniest thing they’ve ever done.’
All Round To Mrs Brown’s – a Saturday night show which sees ‘Mrs Brown’ joined by celebrity guests – won best entertainment show at the Scottish BAFTA awards this week.
In light of the allegations, taxpayers took to social media to demand the BBC scrap the comedy – shortly after its makers celebrated their BAFTA success on Twitter
Fiona O’Carroll, who plays Maria and her husband, Martin Delany, who plays Trevor, have been named as members of the scheme
Amanda Woods, who plays Betty in the show, and her husband Danny O’Carroll, reportedly signed up but did not invest, according to the Irish Times.
Mr Houlihan, who plays Agnes Brown’s son Dermot, joined the schem
Mr Houlihan told the newspaper: ‘I was told the money went to a trust and it wasn’t mine until I received it, and I didn’t have to pay any tax until I got the money.
‘I was in control of when I would pay tax. The first thing I thought of was the Jimmy Carr thing but I was told it was fully legal.
He added: ‘It wasn’t about dodging the tax. I wanted to pay the tax’, and said that now all he wants is to ‘pay my taxes and live freely the way it was up until I got the phone call [from Panorama].’
In 2012 Jimmy Carr made a grovelling apology about his tax affairs and said he had made a ‘terrible error of judgement’.
He had been one of thousands using a legal off-shore scheme to pay as little as one per cent income tax.
He is believed to have been the largest beneficiary of the K2 accountancy arrangement, said to shelter £168million a year from the taxman
Dubbed the ‘Paradise Papers’, the leak is second only to last year’s Panama Papers and again exposes how the rich and powerful shield wealth offshore.
Hundreds of individuals and companies reportedly have had their overseas investments exposed by the files, which are also said to reveal that major global companies have exploited offshore schemes to avoid tax.