Football legend John Barnes has revealed the staggering amount he is paying the taxman after being thrust into a bankruptcy nightmare.
Former Liverpool and England winger Barnes has been paying regular amounts to HM Revenue & Customs for the past eight years. However, earlier this month, it was reported that he was hit with another bankruptcy petition at the High Court.
Barnes had accumulated debts of over £1.5million in his media firm, having been banned as company director for three-and-a-half years. The firm, John Barnes Media Limited, went into liquidation two years after failing to pay more than £190,000 in tax.
As outlined in his latest liquidators’ progress report, the 61-year-old owes HMRC £776,878 in unpaid VAT, NI and PAYE, £461,849 to unsecured creditors, a £226,000 directors loan and liquidator’s costs worth £56,535.
But Barnes has spoken to the All Things Business podcast to address what he claims are misleading reports about his financial affairs. He also said that he has repaid around £2.2m since 2017, and continues to pay £10,000 each month.
Speaking on the podcast, he said: ‘I was making a lot of money, I was the first £10,000 a week footballer and benefited from that for a few years.
Football legend John Barnes pays a staggering amount to the taxman every month
Barnes had accumulated debts of over £1.5m in his media firm and was banned as director
Liverpool
Arsenal
*18+, excludes NI. Terms and conditions apply
‘Like a lot of elite sportspeople, I got burned because I trusted people, I got caught out a couple of times and ended up losing between £1m and £1.5m over four years.
‘In 2017, I began talking to HMRC about what I could do to repay what I owed.’
Barnes said that when he had been served with petitions, he had gone to court to make arrangements to pay in a bid to avoid being made bankrupt.
He added: ‘I know how hard it is for people out there. I don’t want to say there are loopholes, or that I can get away with this or that, or have people think I can be made bankrupt and keep my assets, because I’ve already sold everything.
‘I don’t have any assets.
‘But every time something new comes up, stories appear in the press saying negative things about how I am not paying my taxes, even though I’m going to court, not to be made bankrupt, but to ask for permission to keep paying.
‘Football is a working-class sport, and I don’t want hard-working people thinking I’ve got all this money and I won’t pay tax. It would be easy to be made bankrupt because they can’t take anything else from me.’
Barnes also alleged companies had stopped inviting him to speak due to the situation.
He said that he has repaid around £2.2m since 2017, and continues to pay £10,000 each month
The Insolvency Service said Barnes’ media representation company had failed to pay £190,000 in taxes. Barnes was the only listed director of the firm.
An investigation was launched and discovered that between November 2018 and October 2020, the company had paid no tax at all despite a turnover of £441,798.
Barnes signed a disqualification undertaking, which bans him from acting as a director.
Mike Smith, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said Barnes had a ‘legal duty’ to ensure his firm was paying the correct amount of tax.
‘Individuals and businesses not paying the tax they should deprives the government of the funding it needs to provide vital public services and investment in areas such as schools, hospitals and roads,’ Smith said.
Barnes won 79 England caps between 1983 and 1995.
