Bradley Wiggins among investors in £100m 'charity' tax avoidance scheme

Up to 400 invested in the ‘Cup Trust’

Victoria McKeever
clock • 2 min read

Olympic cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins has been named as an investor in a scheme said to have used a charity as a front to attempt to avoid paying HMRC £100m in tax, according to reports.

Wiggins, who is a five-time Olympic medallist and the first Briton to win the Tour de France, was among up to 400 investors who put money into the ‘Cup Trust', the Times has reported. In 2010, the Cup Trust reported donations of £176m - more than each of the RSPB, British Heart Foundation and the Salvation Army - but gave just £150,000 to charity. The scheme allegedly used the donations to artificially generate gift aid claims that could be used by donors to reduce their tax bill. Had it been successful, the scheme would have reportedly resulted in tax savings of £55m, or an average o...

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