A ‘powerful weapon’? Tax, avoidance, and the politics of celebrity shaming

ABSTRACT

In the years following the global financial crisis, the tax affairs of celebrities began to receive significant critical attention in the UK press. ‘Tax shaming’ has been welcomed as a significant weapon in the fight for tax justice: it is argued that in lieu of the government action needed to close loopholes in tax law, the threat of public condemnation serves to deter would-be tax avoiders. Focusing on news stories about celebrity tax avoiders, this article complicates this prevailing view of tax shaming. Drawing on cultural studies and cultural economy approaches, I argue that commentators have overlooked the forms of identification that tax shaming stories afford. Through a discussion of the discursive figure of the beleaguered ‘taxpayer’ in neoliberal culture, I propose that celebrity tax shaming consolidates identification with this subject position, deepening anti-tax sentiment. Stories that ostensibly ‘shame’ celebrities also support identification with the figure of the tax avoider, perpetuating fantasies of avoidance, evasion and escape. The article concludes that tax shaming contributes to the formation of emergent taxation imaginaries, animating politically salient conceptions of the ‘taxpayer’ and of avoidance that tend to promote logics of tax efficiency and minimization.

KEYWORDS:

• Tax avoidance
• celebrity
• shame
• austerity
• taxpayer

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Kim Allen and Laura Clancy for the invitation to join their panel on ‘Celebrity elites and the cultural politics of austerity’ at the Celebrity Studies Journal Conference in 2016.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The ‘disclosure of tax avoidance schemes’ or DOTAS regime. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/disclosure-of-tax-avoidance-schemes-overview [Accessed 5th October 2016].

2. A phrase used by Laura Clancy, in conversation about this topic.

3. It is of course the case that everyone, including those who do not pay income tax, is subject to indirect taxes in the form of VAT and tobacco, alcohol, and fuel duty, and is thus a ‘taxpayer’. In 2011–12, a higher proportion of gross household income was taken in all taxes from the bottom 10% as compared with the top 10% (Ruane and Byrne 2014).

4. Celebrity tax avoiders who seek recognition via the British honours system can find this ‘exitability’ called into question. Margaret Hodge called for Barlow to be stripped of his OBE following the Liberty exposé (Press Association 2014), while David Beckham’s nomination for a knighthood was reportedly blocked after he was ‘red flagged’ by HMRC (Booth and Grierson 2017).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Bramall

Rebecca Bramall is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, UK. Rebecca’s research explores the interpenetration of culture and economy. Her publications include The Cultural Politics of Austerity: Past and Present in Austere Times (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and a special issue of New Formations on austerity (2016).