Leaked documents from Paradise Papers show actors used scheme similar to one that proved awkward for Jimmy Carr

Actors from the BBC sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys used a complicated web of offshore companies and trusts to avoid paying tax on their earnings, documents from the Paradise Papers reveal.

The scheme is similar to the kind that was used by the comedian Jimmy Carr – and it appears to have allowed them to save thousands of pounds in income tax.

One of the stars of the show said they had joined the scheme on advice and did not really understand it. “You never knew what the fuck was going on,” said Paddy Houlihan, who plays Dermot.



Speaking to the Irish Times, one of the Guardian’s partners in the investigation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Houlihan admitted he was concerned that the arrangements seemed similar to those used by Carr, which enraged the then prime minister David Cameron, who described them as “morally wrong”.

HMRC investigated that scheme, which allegedly sheltered £168m in Jersey. Carr apologised and withdrew from it.



Though there is nothing illegal in the revelations, they may prove similarly awkward for some of the cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys – and for the BBC.

The arrangements are laid bare in the Paradise Papers, which include thousands of emails and documents relating to tax schemes, some of which were set up with the aid of the offshore law firm Appleby. The papers show how dozens of high earners used offshore vehicles designed to shield money from the taxman.

Loved by millions of viewers and loathed by most critics, Mrs Brown’s Boys has become a TV phenomenon since it launched in 2011. It features the comedian Brendan O’Carroll playing the foul-mouthed matriarch of an Irish family predominantly portrayed by his real-life relatives. The Christmas special last year pulled in 9 million viewers, more than the Queen’s speech.

O’Carroll, 62, is not involved in the scheme detailed in the Paradise Papers, but members of his family are.

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Documents show O’Carroll’s daughter, Fiona O’Carroll, who plays Maria in the show, her husband, Martin Delany, who stars as Trevor, and Houlihan all made use of a scheme that used trusts based in Mauritius and a series of loans and consultancy payments to reduce the tax they paid in the UK and Ireland.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Amanda Woods, Martin Delany, Fiona O’Carroll and Danny O’Carroll. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/Rex/Shutterstock

Two of their co-stars, Amanda Woods – Betty in the show – and her husband, Danny O’Carroll, who plays Buster, also signed up for the scheme but did not use it.

Houlihan said the actors had been seeking to defer their tax bills, not avoid them, but he had had reservations about signing up to the scheme.



“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,” he said. “I was in control of when I would pay the tax.”

The five actors were clients of Roy Lyness, the accountant who made headlines in 2012 for running the “K2” tax avoidance scheme used to help Carr avoid paying more than £3m on his earnings.

Lyness is also the accountant to Brendan O’Carroll’s production company, BOC-PIX Ltd, and his name appears on the show’s credits. The production company was not involved in an offshore scheme.



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The documents show that in late 2013, Lyness introduced members of O’Carroll’s family to a tax advice firm called Aston Court, which operated a number of legal offshore trusts and companies designed to reduce users’ tax liabilities in the UK and Ireland.

These companies were used to turn money that would have been classed as income in the UK and Ireland into loans. While income payments are subject to national insurance and tax of up to 45%, loans can be received free of both.

Documents set out in detail how the complicated scheme appears to have worked.

The actors were allocated trusts and cell companies based in Mauritius. Lyness had his own cell and the five actors were each allocated one. The cell companies were all linked to offshore trusts run by Aston Court.

Money earned by the actors was received in the UK by a company called Pro Fid Ltd, which has a service address in Stratford, east London. It was acting as their agent for the work. The money was then transferred to Mauritius, either directly into the actors’ cells or via a trust run by Aston Court.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys. Photograph: BBC

The cells were “looking after” this money for the trusts, with the actors setting out what should be done with it. Each signed a contract to be an “investment adviser” to their cell and then supplied monthly advice on what should be done with the money.

Although paperwork described the cells as being related to UK property and shares, in each case the advisers’ recommendations almost entirely involved making loans to themselves. These loans, typically of tens of thousands of pounds at a time, were arranged at commercial interest rates and had repayment dates, but were never repaid by the actors.

Over a period of more than two years, it is estimated a total of more than £1.5m was transferred into the cells linked with Fiona O’Carroll and Delany, and with Houlihan.

By the end of 2015, Fiona O’Carroll had borrowed about £300,000 from her cell company and was holding more than that in cash offshore, and her husband had done much the same. Houlihan had borrowed about £200,000 and had more left in his offshore cell.

They were able to access the money through a series of loans and using credit cards linked to the cells, on which they could put expenses.

At one point, Delany recommended his cell invest in a pair of diamond stud earrings he had bought at auction for €11,750 (£10,400). However, Appleby suggested that this might mean the earrings would have to be leased to the eventual wearer, even if it was his wife. The advisers eventually decided that he should instead borrow the cost from his offshore cell.

It is not clear whether the scheme will fall foul of HMRC rules, although in recent years there has been a crackdown on schemes designed to shelter income from tax and national insurance. HMRC warns against these “disguised remuneration” schemes on its website.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fiona O’Carroll and Delany. Photograph: Getty Images

In early 2016, it warned of contractor loan schemes: “In reality, you don’t pay the loan back, so it’s no different to normal income and is taxable.

“So if you’re using one of these schemes and being paid this way, you’re highly likely to be avoiding tax. You could end up paying additional taxes, penalties and interest, as well as a fee to the promoter.”

Emails sent by Appleby reveal its staff were concerned about the structure of some of the cells run by Aston Court.

Correspondence shows Appleby’s lawyers suggesting the arrangements look like an attempt to replicate the kind of tax avoidance that resulted in a HMRC investigation into the finances of Carr and others who used K2.

In an email sent in September 2015, an Appleby lawyer said: “My view is that if loans provided are not serviced by frequent interest payments or principal repaid by the due date, there is no difference between K2 scheme and the ones being set up here. Please also note that Mr Roy Lyness has also been introducing clients to us via PFS/Aston.”

It is not clear what action, if any, was taken as a result of these concerns.

Houlihan said he signed up Pro Fid as an agent to receive money for his stage work and it was still collecting his earnings earlier this year.



When the scheme was proposed to him, he said he asked if it was legal. “The first thing I thought of was the Jimmy Carr thing, but I was told it was fully legal,” Houlihan said.

He took out loans, but said he did not know when they were supposed to be paid back. When he got a letter asking him when he planned to repay the first loan, “I forwarded it to Roy Lyness and asked him how do I handle this? He said don’t worry about it. I don’t recall getting another letter.”

Houlihan thinks he got a total of eight loans and they were being “rolled over”. As far as he understands, a larger loan was issued last year and used to pay off the earlier loans. He said he regularly signed documents he did not understand.

In mid-October, after the BBC and the Guardian started contacting people linked with the scheme, Houlihan said the money left in his offshore account had unexpectedly been transferred to his Irish bank account.

The same thing had happened to Fiona O’Carroll and Delany, he said. This could suggest the structures belonging to the actors have been shut down.



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The Guardian put a number of questions to Lyness. He declined to answer them but said all income from any source had been taxed as appropriate.

The Guardian also put a series of questions to James O’Toole of Aston Court. He declined to comment on them.

Appleby has said in a statement: “There is no evidence of wrongdoing either on the part of ourselves or our clients.”

Mrs Brown’s Boys began life in the theatre and has evolved into a ratings smash hit for the BBC. It was voted Radio Times’s best sitcom of the 21st century in a 2016 poll and a big-screen version of the show, Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie, was released in 2014.

The film was panned by critics. The Guardian gave it one star and Empire magazine was withering: “[The movie was] almost avant garde in its commitment to unfunny, it’s shambolically performed by the majority of its cast, and shot and edited in a fashion so slapdash it seems like a movie made almost entirely by competition winners.”

Nevertheless, it still made £4.3m in its opening weekend in the UK and Ireland, and the cast have also completed a string of sellout tours.

O’Carroll has reportedly earned millions from the show, which has become so popular that its fans can now buy Mrs Brown’s Boys calendars, greeting cards, T-shirts, hats, mugs, teapots, towels, wooden spoons, key chains, magnets, badges and air fresheners.