Former “Harry Potter” star Rupert Grint has been ordered to pay 1.8 million pounds ($2.3 million) after losing a years-long legal battle with tax authorities in the U.K.
The 36-year-old English actor, who rose to international fame for playing Harry Potter’s best friend Ron Weasley in the hugely successful film franchise, had initially been ordered to pay that amount in 2019 after officials investigated his tax return from seven years earlier.
The H.M. Revenue and Customs agency, a department of the British government equivalent to the IRS, took issue with how Grint wrongly classed 4.5 million pounds ($5.8 million) he received as the sole shareholder of a company managing his business affairs.
According to the HMRC, that money — residuals from DVD sales, streaming rights and syndication — should not have been classified as a capital asset but as income, which is subject to a much higher tax rate (up to 52% compared to the 10% capital gains tax).
Lawyers for the actor appealed the decision, but after five years a judge finally ruled in favor of the HMRC.
The money in question “derived substantially the whole of its value from the activities of Mr. Grint,” the judge said, per the BBC, therefore it “is taxable as income.”
Grint’s latest legal blow comes after the actor lost a separate court battle in 2019 involving a 1 million pound ($1.3 million) tax refund.
The young actor was cast in “Harry Potter” at 11 years old and went on to appear in all eight installments of the blockbuster fantasy series between 2001 and 2011. He’s estimated to have earned over $30 million for his role as Ron Weasley.
He has since appeared in several films and TV series, as well as on the stage on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2015, he took home two Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards — Favorite Featured Actor in a Play and Favorite Breakthrough Performance — for his work in the revival of Terrence McNally’s “It’s Only a Play.”
Grint was most recently seen in all four seasons of the critically acclaimed psychological horror series “Servant,” which concluded its final season on Apple TV+ early last year.
With News Wire Services
