Liverpool legend, John Barnes declared bankrupt after company racks up £1.5m debt

Liverpool legend, John Barnes, has been declared bankrupt after his company ran up debts of 1.5million. The bankruptcy notice was published in the London Gazette on Tuesday, September 30, after a petition was filed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in early August. It was issued in the High Court of Justice on September 23. The Mirror reports that HMRC said John Barnes Media Limited, the former footballer’s now-liquidated company, had amassed debts exceeding 1.5m. Liquidators reports show HMRC is owed 776,878 in unpaid VAT, National Insurance, and PAYE, alongside 461,849 to unsecured creditors and a 226,000 directors loan. The former Reds and England winger, capped 79 times for the Three Lions, has faced multiple bankruptcy petitions since 2010, including one in 2023 over a 238,000 personal tax bill that was settled at the last moment. Barnes, who lives in Heswall, Wirral , was banned from being a company director for three-and-a-half years in 2023 after an Insolvency Service investigation found his firm failed to pay more than 190,000 in corporation tax and VAT between 2018 and 2020, despite a turnover of 441,798. Mike Smith, chief investigator at the service, said Barness failure to ensure taxes were paid should serve as a deterrent to other directors. The bankruptcy comes just a month after Barnes opened up about his tax nightmare saying: Im paying what I owe. The former footballer, who was the first 10,000-a-week player, said he has been paying HMRC for the past eight years after suffering heavy losses from poorly advised investments. He went on the All Things Business podcast to clear up what says are misleading reports about his financial affairs. Since 2017, Barnes said he had repaid around 2.2million and continues to pay 10,000 each month under arrangements agreed with the tax authority. Speaking on the podcast, Barnes said: I was making a lot of money, I was the first 10,000 a week footballer and benefited from that for a few years. Like a lot of elite sportspeople, I got burned because I trusted people, I got caught out a couple of times and ended up losing between 1m and 1.5m over four years. In 2017, I began talking to HMRC about what I could do to repay what I owed. Barnes added: I know how hard it is for people out there. I dont want to say there are loopholes, or that I can get away with this or that, or have people think I can be made bankrupt and keep my assets, because Ive already sold everything. I dont have any assets. But every time something new comes up, stories appear in the press saying negative things about how I am not paying my taxes, even though Im going to court, not to be made bankrupt, but to ask for permission to keep paying. Football is a working-class sport, and I dont want hard working people thinking Ive got all this money and I wont pay tax. It would be easy to be made bankrupt because they cant take anything else from me.The post Liverpool legend, John Barnes declared bankrupt after company racksup1.5mdebt appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.