Poor Rupert Grint! The 27-year-old may be a talented actor but he’s not so great at looking over his finances. By putting his trust in his father and his accountant, they put him in a situation where he’s being forced to pay $1.3 million in back taxes due to some numerical trickery. He allowed Clay & Associates to change his accounting date so that 20 months of income would be taxed in the calendar year 2009-2010.
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That means he had eight months of income that he didn’t declare in 2010-11 and since he was making bank at the time — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One had just come out — he was being taxed in a high income bracket in his native Britain. Not only that, his tax rate jumped from 40% to 50% in the months he didn’t declare income, so he’s really having to pay out now.
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The judge determined that the date change would result in 10% saving on his income or $1.3 million, per Rupert’s accountant. Rupert desperately tried to appeal the ruling, claiming he had almost no awareness of his financial affairs as he trusted his dad Nigel Grint and accountant Dan Clay to make sure everything was properly taken care of. But alas, his ignorance of his finances didn’t sway the judge.
Luckily for Rupert, even with such a huge tax debt he’s still an incredibly wealthy guy. He’s worth over $31 million thanks to his work as Ron Weasley in all eight of the Harry Potter films. While he hasn’t had a major hit since the franchise wrapped, he’ll be appearing on the small screen in 2017 when he stars in European pay TV service Sky’s comedy Sick Note.
HollywoodLifers, do you think it was wrong for Rupert to put all of his finances in other people’s hands? Or would you have done the same?