Sunplaza

Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in Potteriana, owes the British tax authorities £1.8 million ($2.3 million) and has to pay this amount after losing a court case with the government agency. The actor had been avoiding payments for years and was supposed to cover his fine in 2019.

This happened after Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) audited his 2011-2012 tax returns. According to The Mirror US, Grint received $5.8 million from the company that handled his business as “remuneration for rights, recordings, and goodwill” related to his acting work. According to the star, this should have been taxed as capital gains, but the tax authorities insisted that it was income and demanded that he pay an additional $2,285,609.

Rupert Grint earned this “capital gain” from the sale of copies of the Harry Potter films on DVD, royalties from television screenings, and broadcast rights.

After hearing the case, Judge Harriet Morgan ruled against the celebrity, as he “derived substantially all of his value from the activity” and the money was “otherwise realized” as income during the disputed tax year. That is why, according to the judge, the $5.8 million was income, not capital gains.

The source reports that the actor earned about $29 million for starring as a teenager in all the Harry Potter films. However, he still faced financial problems, losing another court case in 2019 over a $1.2 million tax refund.

According to People, the actor took advantage of a financial loophole previously used by The Beatles to reduce their tax costs. Thanks to this method, the band founded a company in the 1960s and sold the rights to their music to it to pay capital gains tax instead of income tax.