1 month ago
EXCLUSIVE: Lip Sync Productions, nan British movie and TV investor down titles including The Brutalist and Viggo Mortensen’s Falling, has been named and shamed by nan UK’s taxation authorities.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said Lip Sync Productions, a sister institution to nan collapsed Lipsync post-house, was astatine nan apical of its most precocious published database of “deliberate taxation defaulters.”
HMRC revealed that Lip Sync Productions grounded to salary a £14.1M ($19M) taxation measure betwixt 2019 and 2023, meaning it had been slapped pinch a punishment of £7M. There is nary proposal that 3rd parties progressive successful Lip Sync’s movie projects were alert of nan taxation default.
Peter Hampden, nan proprietor and head of Lip Sync Productions, did not respond to a petition for comment. Hampden’s co-founder, Norman Merry, died past twelvemonth aft being diagnosed pinch cancer.
An HMRC spokesperson declined to remark connected nan specifications of Lip Sync Productions’ unpaid taxation bill, but said: “We are committed to tackling those who deliberately default connected nan taxation they owe. By publishing nan names of deliberate defaulters and their penalties, we nonstop a clear connection that non-compliance has consequences.”
Begbies Traynor was appointed arsenic a voluntary liquidator astatine Lip Sync Productions successful January. Hampden continues to service arsenic a head of nan company, arsenic good arsenic related statement Glenthorp Limited, which was nan genitor institution of Lipsync Post.
Deadline revealed past May that Lipsync Post had collapsed. Ireland’s Playhouse Studios later acquired Lipsync’s assets, redeeming dozens of jobs successful nan process.
Oury Clark, nan administrator appointed to grip Lipsync Post’s demise, said nan institution had received a “substantial claim” from HMRC, worthy much than £17.5M.
In a report, Oury Clark said it was assessing nan conflict pinch HMRC “in respect of nan VAT curen of various historical transactions” and “the utilisation of taxation alleviation schemes” by Lipsync Post and third-party clients.
Lip Sync Productions was founded successful November 2006. It backed projects including We Need To Talk About Kevin, Great Expectations, Nowhere Boy, and Made In Dagenham.
