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Stones tax windfall revealed
By Allan Hall, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 01.08.06
Rolling Stones: rolling in money
The Rolling Stones paid just 1.6 per cent in tax on earnings of £80 million last year thanks to slick management of their fortunes.
Details have leaked out because the Stones are preparing for the final curtain call - making their wills - and Dutch law requires certain information to be made public.
Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported on the extraordinary tax break that Sir Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards and drummer Charlie Watts enjoyed through the use of offshore trusts and companies.
Ronnie Wood does not qualify to have his assets managed by the same Dutch group as the others. With just £70 million in the bank, he is the poor relation.
According to the newspaper, the trio went to a Dutch finance house in 1972 to have their millions managed from Amsterdam because they did not trust British finance houses.
Now they are making wills to ensure that beneficiaries do not end up squabbling. Details were revealed in the country's trade registry, according to Die Welt.
A Dutch holding called Promogroup is the umbrella financial organisation that has been secretly managing the finances of the three original Stones for the past 35 years. Their Dutch advisers use branch offices in the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean to reduce tax liabilities.
The registry also pinpoints a European blueblood as their finance manager - German-Austrian Prince Rupprecht Ludwig Ferdinand zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg - whom the band reportedly nickname 'Ruppie the Groupie'.
Promogroup holding runs 10 subsidiary companies and has roots stretching back to the 17th century when rich merchants rather than rockers were its customers.
Sabine Schuttgens, a lawyer involved in setting up the Stones' trusts, said: 'The foundations are to make sure that after the death of the rock stars there would be no arguments among their heirs.'
The Rolling Stones have generated nearly £1.5billion in receipts from touring since 1989 alone.
Sir Mick, whose wealth is estimated at £205million, owns six properties in locations including Chelsea, Richmond, Mustique and the South of France.
Keith Richards, who underwent brain surgery in May to relieve a blood clot on the brain, is worth £180million and Charlie Watts £85 million.
The band make hundreds of thousands of pounds in royalties for playing their own songs on tour, most of which goes to songwriters Jagger and Richards.
