This is Emily Eavis. The Eavis family, besides running the Festival, is mad about crazy Jeremy Corbyn.
Just recently 88-year-old Eavis transferred his ownership of the Festival’s Worthy farm site to his daughter, Emily. Was this tax planning and will it save IHT now farms are going to be hit?
In addition, Eavis spent £3.7 million(we understand) acquiring further land for the farm using the profits from the Festival. What was this about?
Festival profits this year were in the region of several million and donated to various charities.
The Festival itself is not a charity and is wholly owned by the Eavis family.
The current theory is that HMRC might claim that the value of the transfer should not just be based on the profits made but, much more importantly, on the brand value.
Glastonbury Festival is a global brand. If offered for sale a private equity company would pay more than £300 million. Various rights within the Festival have considerable value such as branding and franchises.
To pay what could be a vast IHT bill Emily would need to raise a great deal of money so why did the family not set the Festival up as a charity? Was it because they were advised that at some stage it was worth hundreds of millions and they could share in the post tax capital gains?
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