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Snap. I worked in a similar industry. 2010 was definitely the high water mark (is that the correct metaphor?). I think a major flaw however, was when success stories still came out as a loss - see Twilight.
@t.o. my point was in relation to Nick's reply to someone else's comment on Sunak's wife's non-dom status.
Generally people seem to have a problem with tax avoidance they don't like/benefit from, but are cool with ones they do like/benefit from.
I disagree that the schemes you list aren't tax avoidance - imo they are in a subset: government backed tax avoidance.... just like non-dom status.
hugo7
@ElGonzo
I worked for a media investments firm for a few months back in 2010, name the footballer and they were in it. Stories of firm directors taking helicopters up to Carrington in the hours up to end of tax year to get wet-ink signatures from Man Utd players, the directors would take up spare application forms as they would get 2 or 3 curious teammates who'd get FOMO and sign up there and then; we're talking high 6 to 7 figure sums. These were Enterprise Investment Schemes and Venture Capital Trusts with all sorts of juicy income tax and capital gains relief. Investments in films, festivals, wine, all kinds of shit. And they would do it every year, capital had to be locked up for 3-5 years and as the schemes and trusts matured they'd get their cheques from HMRC and then return of principal investment.
The way these things were structured meant that investors through these schemes would be the first to get paid back so relatively little risk even if the film/event was a dud. In the run up to end of tax year you'd get all sorts of celebs walking into the office in Soho to sign up for these things.