Viagogo accused over UK tax affairs

Viagogo paid just £26,000 tax in the UK last year on turnover of almost £5m, according to figures revealed by the Sun newspaper.

In the latest attack on the company by the UK’s mainstream media, the country’s most-read newspaper alleged that Viagogo’s UK-based operation, VGL Services, paid just £26,000 (€30,000/$32,500) corporation tax in 2015 on £4.7m generated by providing technology, customer and finance support services.

The Sun reports that VGL is owned by Pugnacious Endeavours, owned by Viagogo’s US chief executive Eric Baker.

It added that the company’s 24 UK staff operated from a London office until last month, but recently moved without leaving forwarding details. The Sun said Viagogo did not respond to a request for comment on its allegations.

Viagogo was criticised by MPs last week after failing to provide an executive to appear before a parliamentary committee hearing into ticketing abuse.

Since allegations were made against Viagogo and its rivals in a previous hearing last November, UK tax and competition authorities have launched an investigation into the secondary ticket market.

Meanwhile, Google has again been criticised over its links with the secondary ticketing market.

The Ticketing Business last week reported that MP Nigel Huddleston had written to the search engine and tech giant suggesting companies such as Viagogo are violating its own advertising terms. Now the chief executive of promoter Kilimanjaro Live, which works with acts including Ed Sheeran and Red Hot Chili Peppers, has claimed Google is “making a fortune” out of the reselling sector due to the money spent on advertising by the major resale sites.

“Out of any organisation, Google are probably the ones making more money out of secondary ticketing than anybody else – purely and simply because, when you buy a Google ad, you are at the top if you pay the most,” Stuart Galbraith told Music Week.

“There are numerous examples of us being outbid on nearly every single project that we have in the marketplace – and that’s because [resale sites’] margins are so big. We literally have examples where we can afford to spend 50p or £1, and you have these companies spending £10 or – in extreme examples – £15 a click, and so you only need to work out the maths on that for Google and you see they’re making a fortune.”