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Rooney & Wenger among footy stars accused of exploiting tax scheme

Football stars including Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson have been accused of exploiting a scheme taking advantage of tax reliefs for building projects in enterprise zones, The Guardian has reported.
A host of footballers have invested in the £264 million construction of two data centres on the Cobalt business estate near Newcastle. They were among 674 investors who paid a combined £79 million towards the project, with the rest of the £185 million cost borrowed from the Bank Winter of Vienna, according to the paper.
However, even though they only paid part of the cost, the investors were entitled to 50% tax relief on the full £264 million purchase price, meaning they made a £52 million profit under the deal. The deal was structured in April 2011, just before tax reliefs on enterprise zones were replaced with different allowances.
According to The Guardian, not a single tenant has signed up to the two centres. Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said this fuelled the perception the scheme was aimed at tax avoidance.
'It is deeply depressing to find greedy individuals exploiting a perfectly proper government objective, to line their pockets. Enterprise zones aimed to create jobs, not to enable rich people to get more money back than they invested,' she told the paper.
Those who invested in the scheme also include Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger and midfielder Mikel Arteta and Everton players Marouane Fellaini, Nikica Jelavic and Sylvain Distin. Comedian Jimmy Carr was also an investor.
The Football Association declined to comment, while Leon Angel, agent for Hodgson and Wenger and also an investor, told The Guardian: 'Our clients are pleased to invest in government-backed regeneration programmes which will hopefully help to generate new jobs in these areas.'
Rooney's representatives declined to comment to the paper, Everton and Arsenal said their players' investments were private matters, while representatives of Fellaini, Arteta, Jelavic, Distin and Carr did not respond to questions about the scheme.