Desmond avoids tax with £26m pension payment

Richard Desmond, owner of OK! magazine, Express Newspapers and mucky TV channels, avoided a £13m tax bill by placing £26m into his pension pot before new rules came into effect last April. He paid himself £27.3m last year, according to the latest accounts for his holding company. Of that figure, £26m was paid into his pension fund, leaving him with pay of £1.3m. The figures also reveal that Desmond's launch of a US version of OK! cost him £27.5m on a turnover of £4.7m. (Via Daily Telegraph )