Celebrities fail to escape the taxman in Asia

published by asingh on Tue, 04/17/2012 - 22:27

Manny Pacquio pays 1.8% of his income to taxes. Will that change when he finally fights Floyd Mayweather for the biggest boxing purse of all time?

Death and taxes are life’s only two certainties.

Oh, and that the rich don’t pay their share.

In the Philippines, where corruption and graft is rampant throughout government, celebrities do seem to pay their taxes, however. There is no escaping the public and tax department’s eye. Unless you are Manny Pacquia, it seems.

The boxing champ paid an effective tax rate of a measly 1.8%. Out of a total reported income of C$11.8 million, he paid only C$210,000.

For the sake of comparison, anyone in Canada who earns approximately C$500,000 – or only 4% of what Pacquia earned - would be looking at a similar sized tax bill.

None on the list of top tax paying celebrities in the Philippines, however, is anywhere near the world’s most tax-indebted star – Paul Hogan of Crocodile Dundee fame. He’ll need to sell an ocean full of shrimps on his barbie before he digs his way out of his C$37 million tax bill.

Nicholas Cage is number two on this worldwide celebrity list – he owes C$14 million in back taxes. In other words, we’ll be subject to seeing countless bad Nicholas Cage movies for years to come.

Here is a list of the top Filipino celebrity tax-payers in 2010 according to www.ikuwaderno.com.

Carlo J. Caparas

Taxable Income: C$4.82 million

Taxes Paid: C$1.54 million

Kris Aquino

Taxable Income: C$2.37 million

Taxes Paid: C$760,000

Willie Revillame

Taxable Income: C$1.93 million

Taxes Paid: C$620,000

Michael V.

Taxable Income: C$1.54 million