COMEDIAN Frankie Boyle has secured a £1.7 million payday after dissolving a firm that handles his profits.

The controversial stand-up put his personal company Gentlemen Artist into voluntary liquidation.

The Glasgow-born comic’s earnings have rocketed since he shot to fame on the BBC panel show Mock the Week in 2005.

He has coined in a fortune from television appearances, programmes and sell-out tours.

Boyle signed a statement of solvency to close his firm down. A Companies House document reveals the firm had assets of £1,770,514.

His company’s accounts show he had £378,199.64 in a directors’ loan account, £1,250,101.75 in the bank and was owed almost £142,213 in tax refunds.

Liabilities were listed at £70,000 and liquidator expenses at £10,000.

Despite the massive payday, Boyle, 43, has described money as “pointless” and said he did not enjoy splashing out on so-called luxuries.

In a recent interview with fellow comedian Frank Skinner, he said: “I think ultimately money is pretty pointless.”

“When you get to the point that you have money you realise that luxury and that whole idea you were sold of ‘Oh it would be nice to go on a cruise’, well it really isn’t. It’s like being at a China Buffet King on roller skates for two weeks.

“And these meals that they sell, a romantic meal on the beach and then there’s sand on your food and that table moves in the sand and the waiter is smoking a fag.

“None of it is any good. It’s like trying to eat the picture of a burger off a menu, it’s all just a sales pitch.”

Boyle formed Gentlemen Artist in 2011 after putting his previous company Traskor Productions, which had assets of £2.5m, into voluntary liquidation.

The move prompted Boyle to defend his financial arrangements last year after it was suggested it had reduced the amount he owed to the taxman.
He insisted he had paid £2.7m in tax since 2007 - just under 40 per cent of his income.

He said: “There’s a lot of things people do to not pay tax and I do none of them.”

“I wound my company up for legal reasons separate from tax and my accountant applied for tax relief on this.

“I am certain I pay more tax than most people in showbusiness and the cabinet.”

Boyle is also a director of comedy venue company Salt ‘N’ Sauce Promotions, along with SNP MP Tommy Shepherd, which has assets of more than Pounds 1 million.

Since filing his latest set of accounts he has formed a new company called McShane Karate Limited to replace Gentlemen Artist. It has assets of Pounds 148,171.

The former teacher has always courted controversy since bursting onto the comedy scene.

 joke on his Tramadol Nights TV show about glamour girl Kate Price’s nine-year-old disabled son, Harvey, was deemed so offensive that Channel 4 chiefs were rapped by telly watchdogs Ofcom.

He also caused uproar on Mock the Week with a controversial gag about double Olympic swimming champ Rebecca Adlington.

Tory MP David Davies also blasted Boyle for telling a “disgracefully foul” joke about the Queen.

Earlier this month Boyle announced that he will front a new TV show based on the upcoming American presidential election.
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