- Former England star John Barnes has racked up debts of £1.5m in his media firm
- The 61-year-old was banned as a company director for three-and-a-half years
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Former England and Liverpool legend John Barnes has accumulated debts of over £1.5million in his media firm having been banned as company director for three-and-a-half years.
The 61-year-old, who made 79 appearances for England and spent a decade at Anfield, owes the enormous sum to HMRC and other creditors.
The ex-Newcastle and Watford star owes HMRC £776,878 in unpaid VAT, NI and PAYE, £461,849 to unsecured creditors, a £226,000 directors loan and liquidator’s costs worth £56,535.
He has so far paid back £60,000 after agreeing to return the directors loan in instalments.
Barnes has received six separate bankruptcy petitions since 2010.
The latest report states that a ‘small distribution’ towards the tax bill will be paid and that while ‘no funds’ will be available to pay unsecured creditors.
His company, John Barnes Media Limited, went into liquidation two years after failing to pay more than £190,000 in tax.
Barnes was handed a three-and-a-half year ban from being a company director last April, meaning he is unable to be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without the permission of the court.
An investigation by the Insolvency Service into Barnes’ conduct as a director began in September 2023, just over three years after the company ceased trading in January 2020.
The investigation found that between November 2018 and October 2020, nothing was paid to HMRC in tax.
Barnes was the sole director of the company, based in West Byfleet, Surrey, which described itself as offering media representation services and ceased trading in January 2020.
He failed to pay £78,839 in corporation tax between August 2018 and January 2020, when the company ceased trading.
The company also did not pay £115,272 in VAT between February 2019 and 2020.
During this two-year period John Barnes Media’s turnover was £441,798.
Last April, Mike Smith, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: ‘Individuals and businesses not paying the tax they should deprives the Government of the funding it needs to provide vital public services and investment in areas such as schools, hospitals and roads.
‘John Barnes had a legal duty to ensure his company paid the correct amount of corporation tax or VAT.
‘Instead, it paid no tax whatsoever between November 2018 and October 2020, despite receiving earnings of well over £400,000.
‘This disqualification should serve as a deterrent to other directors that if you do not pay your taxes while directing money elsewhere, you are at risk of being banned.
In a 2009 interview, he said: ‘I don’t like dealing with taxes, of course. I just hate not having enough money. Apart from that, I don’t like dealing with bills and never have done.
‘I let my wife Andrea deal with them. I don’t even like opening them.’
