Controversial ticket resale website Viagogo paid just £26,000 in tax last year despite turnover of £5MILLION
The site which sells unwanted tickets for gigs and sports events was slammed as 'deliberately slippery' by an MP
CONTROVERSIAL ticketing website Viagogo paid just £26,000 tax in the UK last year, despite a turnover of nearly £5million.
The site, which makes a fortune selling on unwanted tickets for gigs and sports events, was yesterday slammed as “deliberately slippery” by an MP.
Last week Viagogo was blasted for failing to show up at a parliamentary hearing into legal ticket touting.
The committee heard how tickets costing between £10 and £40 for Ed Sheeran’s Teenage Cancer Trust gig later appeared on the site priced at more than £5,000.
Viagogo’s UK-based operation VGL Services paid just £26,000 corporation tax in 2015 after making £4.7million providing technology, customer and finance support services.
VGL is owned by Pugnacious Endeavours, owned by Viagogo’s US chief executive Eric Baker.
Until last month its 24 UK staff operated from a City of London office block, but moved without leaving forwarding details.
The Sun on Sunday was barred from speaking to staff at Viagogo’s Geneva offices by security.
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MP Nigel Adams, of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said: “It’s no surprise that Viagogo’s company structure appears to be deliberately slippery.
“It appears to allow them to avoid their fair share of UK tax.
"I can’t think why fans want to patronise them. They are deliberately opaque.”