Rupert Grint owes $2.3 million in taxes for ‘Harry Potter’ residuals

Bloody hell! Rupert Grint must fork over quite a bit in income taxes to the United Kingdom.

The actor famous for playing Harry Potter‘s Ron Weasley now owes £1.8 million ($2.3 million) to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax agency as a result of his residuals from the wizarding series, reports the Associated Press. 

Representatives for Grint did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.

Grint had been asked to pay additional taxes in 2019 after the HMRC reported that he had incorrectly classified £4.5 million in Potter residuals as a capital asset instead of income. After Grint’s lawyers appealed that decision, Judge Harriet Morgan ultimately sided with the HMRC, determining that the star’s residuals — which primarily stem from TV and DVD sales of the eight Harry Potter movies — are indeed income and not merely a capital asset.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

The actor had attempted to decrease his taxable income by establishing the company Clay 10 Limited in 2011, selling his residual rights to the company as capital, The Telegraph reported. Clay 10 had more than £27 million ($34 million) in equity as of March 2023, per a filing from December 2023.

The HMRC responded by citing the “Beatles clause,” essentially claiming that Grint attempted to use the same tax loophole the Beatles tried using in the 1960s when they established a company and sold their music rights to it in order to pay a much lower capital gains tax instead of income tax.

Grint claimed that he was not particularly involved in his own finances, and Judge Morgan agreed that the actor “placed his faith in his father and accountants to deal with his financial affairs,” per The Telegraph.

Grint made his screen debut in 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which began filming shortly after he turned 12. After playing Ron in all seven subsequent films (and earning approximately £27 million, per the Associated Press), Grint has maintained a lower profile than his more active costars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, though he has recently appeared in projects like M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin and Servant, and in an episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.