ONE of the Fringe's leading venues has been forced to reassure performers they will be paid after being taken to court over some £200,000 in unpaid taxes.
The company, which runs the Summerhall venue at the former Royal Dick Vet School, has moved to allay any fears over payment from performers and companies at this year's Fringe after The Herald revealed the tussle between the company that runs the site and Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Run by Summerhall Management Ltd, the arts complex had a hugely successful Fringe, selling more than 36,000 tickets.
However, on August 9 HMRC petitioned Edinburgh Sheriff Court for a winding-up order and the appointment of a liquidator.
In a letter, Rupert Thomson, the venue's programme director, said the report was correct and the company was in dispute with the taxman over "the amount of tax we are due to pay".
He wrote: "According to Scottish law, when disputes like this reach a certain stage, the information is made public as described in the [Herald] article.
"We expect to resolve the issue in the next few days, and, with regards to all of you, have been advised by the finance department that this situation will not affect box office payouts."
The HMRC petition, which has been seen by The Herald, states that Summerhall Management Ltd was told by letter on July 11 that it owed a total of £202,848, and that unless this was paid within seven days, the taxman would seek to have the company wound up.
The petition said that, despite the written warning, the company had failed to pay "any part of the sum" by August 9. Summerhall now has to reach an agreement over the unpaid taxes or HMRC could further press the issue.
A spokesman for HMRC said he could not comment on specific cases or the amounts involved. The petitions used in this way are often seen as a final chance for companies to pay their bills.
This year the venue and its shows were among the brightest stars of the Fringe, with its ticket sales up 275% on the 2012 festival.
Mr Thomson says in his letter to companies and artists: "Thank you to you all once again for being part of our festival here: your brilliant works and generous spirits are essential to our Festival, and it was an honour and pleasure working with all of you."
Summerhall opened in 2011, and made its name on the Fringe with Hotel Medea that year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article