Rupert Grint asked to pay more than £1.8m after losing tax battle
Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, lost an appeal against HMRC’s decision
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Your support makes all the difference.Former Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint must pay more than £1.8m in tax after losing a legal battle with HM Revenue and Customs.
Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the franchise, was ordered to pay the sum in 2019 after HMRC launched an investigation into his tax return from the 2011-12 tax year.
The actor had received a £4.5m sum from a company which managed his business affairs as “consideration for rights, records and goodwill” from his work, which he claimed was a “capital asset” and therefore the subject of capital gains tax.
But HMRC argued that the fee should have been classed as income, and following the investigation told Mr Grint he needed to pay an additional £1,801,060 in tax.
At a hearing in the First-Tier Tribunal, held in London in November and December 2022, lawyers for Grint appealed against HMRC’s decision, arguing that the right amount of tax had been paid.
But in a ruling, Tribunal Judge Harriet Morgan dismissed the appeal, finding that the sum “is taxable as income”.
She said that the money “derived substantially the whole of its value from the activities of Mr Grint”, which was “otherwise realised” as income in the 2011/12 tax year.
Grint starred in the first Harry Potter film in 2001 as a teenager and is calculated to have earned around £24m from playing Ron Weasley.
He previously lost a separate court battle concerning a £1m tax refund in 2019.