MAYOR OF LONDON CAUGHT UP IN US TAX DISPUTE - Boris Johnson has admitted that the US authorities are pursuing him for an unpaid tax demand.
The Conservative mayor of London was born in New York and has kept an American passport despite having left the country when he was five years old, says the Financial Times. The news is awkward for Mr Johnson because he has previously criticised the US embassy in London over its failure to pay the congestion charge, the £12 levy for taking a car into central London. The tax row emerged several days ago when the mayor went to the US to promote his book about Winston Churchill. He said during an interview with NPR radio that he had been served a demand for capital gains tax relating to his main residence in London. “The United States comes after me, would you believe it, for capital gains tax on the sale of your first residence which is not taxable in Britain. They’re trying to hit me with some bill, can you believe it?” Under UK tax law residents do not have to pay CGT on their main home but only on second properties. Yet anyone with a US passport must file a tax return to the American authorities even if the income is earned abroad. There is a foreign-earned income exclusion meaning that US citizens overseas only have to pay tax above a threshold of $97,600. But Mr Johnson’s earnings are far above that level with a mayoral salary of £144,000 and a £250,000 retainer from the Daily Telegraph for regular columns.
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SITESERV TURNOVER INCREASES ALMOST A QUARTER TO €171m - Siteserv, the utility support services group owned by businessman Denis O’Brien, has increased its turnover by almost a quarter over the past year. The group produced a pretax profit of €6.9 million on a turnover of €171 million during the eight months to the end of 2013, according to accounts filed recently. The directors’ report accompanying the accounts said that unaudited results for the group’s businesses for the two most recent 12-month periods showed an underlying increase in revenue of about 23%. Mr O’Brien bought the Siteserv business for €45 million in 2012 using an Isle of Man company called Millington, says the Irish Times. The sale involved the State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation getting just €40 million of the €150 million it was owed by the former plc. Since its acquisition the group has begun a policy of “geographic and sectoral diversification” and in the last eight months of 2013 developed its business in the UK and the Caribbean region, while also working on important contracts with Irish Water (for which it installs water meters) and UPC. Group company Sierra is to work as UPC’s sole provider of residential services in the Republic, according to the accounts.
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TONY GARRY TO STEP DOWN AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF DAVY - Davy Stockbrokers has named Brian McKiernan as its next chief executive. He will take over from Tony Garry (63) who is stepping down as chief executive in 2015 after 20 years, writes the Irish Independent. Davy is the country's biggest brokerage business. Yesterday, Davy said that Tony Garry had advised the board of the brokerage that he intends to step down as chief executive in March. He will be replaced by Mr McKiernan (51), who is a member of the senior executive team at Davy and a board member of J&E Davy, where he has worked since 1989. Mr McKiernan currently heads the private client business which caters to wealthy individuals. An engineering graduate of University College Dublin, he qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen.
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FORMER JJB SPORTS BOSS CONVICTED OF TAKING £1m IN BACKHANDERS - Chris Ronnie, the former boss of JJB Sports, has been found guilty of accepting more than £1m in backhanders from suppliers, says the Guardian. The 52-year-old faces up to 10 years in jail after he was convicted of taking three cash payments from suppliers to the retail chain - which was once Britain’s biggest sportswear retailer but collapsed into administration in 2012. Some of the cash was used to buy property in Florida. Ronnie was found guilty on three counts of fraud and two of furnishing false information after proceedings that lasted more than two months. He refused to give evidence in the trial, which followed an investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office. In comments that appeared to suggest Ronnie would be sent to jail, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “I’m granting you bail to give you an opportunity to get your affairs in order.” Prosecutors will now also seek to bar Ronnie from acting as a company director. The fraud came to light after JJB executives called in the Office of Fair Trading in 2009 - in exchange for immunity - to investigate the possibility that the chain had fixed prices on football shirts with rival Sports Direct, the sportswear firm run by the Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, when Ronnie was at the helm.
