Former Liverpool and England winger John Burns were declared bankrupt last month after a petition was filed by HM Revenue & Customs.
Football legend John Burns was declared bankrupt after his company paid £1.5 million in debt.
Give him full name – John Charles Brian Burns – The bankruptcy notice was published today (September 30) in the London Gazette after the petition was filed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in early August. It was issued in the High Court on September 23rd.
HMRC said his now liquidated company, John Barnes Media Limited, has accumulated more than £1.5 million in debt. The liquidator’s report shows that HMRC is £776,878 on unsecured creditors and a director loan of £226,000, plus £461,849 on £776,878 on unpaid VAT, national insurance and PAYE.
The former Liverpool and the English winger have won 79 times for England and have faced multiple bankruptcy petitions since 2010, including a £238,000 personal tax bill settled in 2023 at the last moment.
Barnes, who lives in Heswall in Wirral, was banned from being director of the company for three and a half years in 2023 after an investigation into bankruptcy services found that despite sales of £441,798, he was unable to pay more than £190,000 in company taxes and VAT between 2018 and 2020.
read more: Football legend John Burns opens with a tax nightmare: “I’m paying what I owe.”read more: Diego Simeone and Liverpool discover their fate to protect Anfield Lowe’s ban
Service chief investigator Mike Smith said Burns’ failure to ensure taxes were paid “should serve as a deterrent to other directors.”
Bankruptcy comes just a month after Burns opens about his tax nightmare and says he’s “paying what I owe.”
Star, the first £10,000 player of the week, said he hasn’t paid HMRC for the past eight years.
He spoke to everything on the business podcast to clear what he said was a misleading report about his finances. Since 2017, Burns said he has repaid around £2.2 million and has continued to pay £10,000 a month under an arrangement agreed with tax authorities.
The English star told the podcast: “I made a lot of money. I’m a soccer player who costs £10,000 a week and I’ve benefited from it for several years. Like many elite sportsmen, I trusted several times and lost £1 million and £1.5 million in four years.
“In 2017, I started talking to HMRC about what I could do to pay back what I owe.”
He said since then, when he was offered the petition, he and his legal representatives went to court to arrange to pay because he didn’t want to go bankrupt.
Burns added: “I know how difficult it is for the people there. I don’t want to say there’s a loophole, or I can get away with this and that.
“But whenever something new begins, the story appears to reporters who say negative things about me not paying taxes, not paying taxes, but asking for permission to continue paying, rather than going bankrupt.
“Soccer is a working class sport and I have all this money and I don’t want them to work hard thinking they don’t pay taxes. They can’t take anything from me, so it’s easy to go bankrupt.”
He said that the negative stories surrounding his finances spoke about business inclusion and diversity, and influenced normal work. Burns added that because of this, some companies, particularly the banking and financial sectors, have, of course, stopped inviting him to speak.
He said he still makes money through professional engagement and doesn’t allow his struggle with HMRC to affect his attitude towards life. “I had some sleepless nights, but it didn’t have a major impact as more people are struggling than I do, seeing the state of the world.
“And as long as I can work and pay, I’m just grateful. What should I complain about? But I’m reassuring people, and the reason I’m talking about this now is because the stories around me are so negative.
“I was very fortunate in my life to still work and pay bills. My kids have a roof on their heads and tables.
“The only reason I’m doing this is because people say things aren’t true. I don’t want to think that former professional footballer John Burns is hiding all his money and not paying taxes.”
Burns was contacted for comment.
