BrewDog co-founder James Watt has said he may delay his marriage to reality TV star Georgia Toffolo for three years, in order to avoid missing out on tax relief for investing in her raw dog food business.
Posting on LinkedIn on Tuesday, the multimillionaire said his tax adviser had “dropped a bombshell” on him that could affect the couple’s wedding plans.
Toffolo – best known for appearing in reality series Made in Chelsea and winning ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – announced their engagement on Instagram earlier this year.
But her fiancé claimed that the tax advice on his planned investment in her dog food business, Wild Pack, had left him with a decision to make regarding the Enterprise Investment Scheme.
“If I marry Georgia within three years of investing, I become a ‘connected person’ under HMRC rules, and I lose the tax relief,” he explained.
Watt asked his followers to vote on whether or not he should opt for “tax relief” over “love”.
Offering multiple choice options, he asked his followers: “‘A) Love always wins – take the tax relief hit’ or ‘B) True love can wait for 3 years – secure the relief’.”
One person responded: “I would take three happy years of marriage over tax relief any day.”
Another replied: “Why not wait… people live together without the paperwork all over the world, many never marry.”
With reference to BrewDog’s punk ethos, another joked: “Looking to postpone your wedding to enhance your tax break options is definitely a punk thing…”
The boss of the Scottish beer giant has been involved in publicity stunts before and it’s not entirely clear if he is serious or not about his dilemma.
In May, he stepped down from his role as CEO of Brewdog, saying he would move to a newly-created position of “captain and co-founder” and retain his shares in the company.
A complaint by Brewdog about a BBC documentary that highlighted allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Watt was rejected by Ofcom in February.
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