Town have announced a loss before tax of £5.2 million in the year to the end of June 2018.

Ahead of this evening’s PLC AGM in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite shareholders were given a sheet outlining the financial highlights of the overall club for the year to June 2018.

The PLC owns 12.5 per cent of Ipswich Town Football Club Co Limited and consists of the club's shareholding prior to the takeover 11 years ago with Marcus Evans owning the other 87.5 per cent.

The club made an operating loss of £8.39 million in the financial year 2017/18, while making £3.84 million from player sales, the initial fees received from Bristol City for Adam Webster - £3.5 million minus Portsmouth’s sell-on share - and £750,000 from Barnsley for Kieffer Moore with the sales of Martyn Waghorn and Joe Garner made after the end of June 2018.

In the previous financial year Town made a loss before tax of £4.3 million and an operating loss of £7.8 million, having received £4.1 million from player trading.

The club’s overall debt has grown from £89.26 million to £95.50 million, owed almost entirely to owner Evans’s other companies - the increase an additional £6.383 million in non-interest-bearing intra-group loans - with MD Ian Milne having previously outlined the position.

“This is no third party debt," he told TWTD in November 2014. “The money that an owner has put into a club, he’s never going to see that back, unless maybe it goes up [to the Premier League]. But even then I doubt he’ll see that return.”

Town’s turnover in 2017/18 was down slightly from £17.24 million in the year to June 2017 to £17.13 million.

The wage bill, by far the club’s biggest outlay, was £18.53 million, 108.17 per cent of turnover, up from £17.78 million during the 2016/17 season.

Gate receipts were down from £5.13 million in 2016/17 to £4.7 million last season having been £6.5 million in 2015/16, while commercial income was down very slightly on the year to June 2017 at £4.350 million from £4.352 million.

The average attendance was down from 16,980 in 2016/17 to 16,272 last season (the 2015/16 season’s was 18,959), while season ticket sales were also lower in 2017/18 at 10,144 having been 12,022 the previous season.

“Gate receipts were down on last season due to lower attendances,” the highlights document explains. “Cup receipts were also lower than last year as 2016/17 included a share of the gate from the replay at Lincoln City [rather than just a single third round tie as in 2017/18].

“Commercial revenue remained at a similar level to last year despite no major stadium concerts in the summer (2016/17 included Elton John). EFL income was higher than last year due to an increase in the basic award distribution.”

Regarding costs, it adds: “Direct costs increased from £21.4 million in 2016/17 to £22 million due mainly to player wages and associated agent fees as further funds were invested in the first team squad and also our academy.

“Administrative expenses decreased from £2.3 million to £1.6 million in the season 2017/18 as a result of a refund of historic policing costs following a legal settlement which was partly offset by an increase in the club’s share of the EFL’s pension scheme deficit.”

The financial highlights can be found in full on the club site here.

Photo: Action Images

doctorbuzz added 22:40 - Dec 4 Evans now in the worse position possible. The club isn't worth anything and he's spunked 90m up the wall with nothing to show. I don't think he can be criticised for that level of funding . Ps as tax is 19% that's all he gets back so you don't invest in a football team for the money unless you do a Huddersfield and win the lottery.
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agentp added 22:41 - Dec 4 People we have FFP. Evans cannot invest an awful lot more without breaking those rules and risking a substantial points deduction and a transfer embargo. The only way to get around that is to spend a huge sum of money and gamble on promotion. The club is where it is because of premiership money and the massive advantage of clubs with parachute payments. Why on earth would Evans spend £10mextra and risk the future of our club. As for wanting a loss to offset tax jeeez it just doesnt happen like that despite what weird conspiracy you want to believe. The FFP rules are pretty simple to understand - tax rules are too actually

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MickMillsTash added 22:47 - Dec 4 Huddersfields wage bill was a lot the year they up 18 Mill on wages - I just cannot work it out - how much do the players get ? I thought we broke a ceiling at 22K/week on Barts new contract suggesting not too many are on 1 Mill Bonkers - how much do you have to pay for football that isn't crap
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rabbit added 23:44 - Dec 4 Prebs please tell me how loosing money works to make you better off? By the way I own a business so any advice greatly received.
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Gcon added 09:20 - Dec 5 You have to speculate to accumulate. Since he took over attendances have been a gradual decline from 25k to 16k per game. The slow death of this club is all on Evans failed strategy (and his clever accountancy that leaves beholden to him for eternity).
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agentp added 09:28 - Dec 5 Rabbit I Can sort that out for you. I can give you that advice. So you have a small engineering business and you have made a nice profit and your tax bill is £1 million. You don't want to pay that one million so you buy another company like [say] an East Anglian football club that loses you £5m. You can transfer some of that tax burden (20% of the £5m] to the loss-making company and avoid paying the £1m. A 5-year-old will then be able to judge that deliberately losing £5m to avoid paying £1m tax id not the smartest of ideas. Others think this is a great idea and probably why out country is fooked.

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agentp added 09:28 - Dec 5 Rabbit I Can sort that out for you. I can give you that advice. So you have a small engineering business and you have made a nice profit and your tax bill is £1 million. You don't want to pay that one million so you buy another company like [say] an East Anglian football club that loses you £5m. You can transfer some of that tax burden (20% of the £5m] to the loss-making company and avoid paying the £1m. A 5-year-old will then be able to judge that deliberately losing £5m to avoid paying £1m tax id not the smartest of ideas. Others think this is a great idea and probably why out country is fooked.

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Gilesy added 09:47 - Dec 5 Agent P - brilliantly put. It really is that simple!
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thundercat600 added 11:18 - Dec 5 22 million on players wages and AGENTS FEES, the last bit says just how powerful these people are in the world of football
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midastouch added 13:53 - Dec 5 We've managed to balance the books (or at least reduce the deficit to a certain degree) through selling our best players, which we've usually managed to do achieve in years gone by in order to keep the ship afloat. But looking at our existing crop and based on their present form, whoever would want to fork out a few millions for any of our current lot? That means next season we could be in an even bigger hole (especially if we go down which looks highly likely). The depressing spiral of decline continues unabated and all under Evans' watch and the League One iceberg is straight ahead.

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stringtheory added 17:11 - Dec 5 Just a few facts to add to the debate, None-one buys a Championship football club with the key aim of turning a profit, unless they're insane. I'm not defending ME but anyone who thinks his motivation for Buying Town was to use it to give him a tax advantage is stupid. What's more, the argument presented on here that he takes advantage of the club's losses to offset his liabilities is simplistic and makes an enormous assumption that he pays all his taxes in the UK. He'd be crazy to do that. ME and other super-rich UK citizens tend to pay very little UK tax as they can easily base their web of companies in off-shore havens and/or other countries. Let's get real. Finally, the most up-to-date stats I could find state that in the 2015/16 season all Championship clubs, apart from one, made a loss. The losses total over 200 million with wages the biggest bill in any club. The only club to turn a profit that season was Wolves, a mighty 731 thousand quid. Having said all that, we are in the s**t all ways!

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prebbs007 added 18:42 - Dec 5 Rabbit and stringtheory you raise excellent points. Yes all championship clubs lose money but the promise land would Jean a £30m purchase could easily treble or quadruple just with promotion. The point rabbit of “hiding profits” to pay less tax is simple. All high worth individuals or companies do it. The biggest example is Trump who freely pays “as little tax as I can”. As I said not illegal but doesn't help ITFC. The point you make stringtheory that no one in the championship makes money is valid but that doesn't seem to stop other owners with vastly less money than Evans (boro Bristol city derby hull etc) from injecting much much more than we have seen at PR which only highlights how little Evans has actually invested in the transfer market. He is without a doubt in a positive number on that front. Our squad gets worse season after season and we are very likely playing league 1 football next year. I fail to see how anyone can say Marcus Evans has been good for ITFC.

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stringtheory added 21:45 - Dec 5 prebbs007 - I'm not sure what ME's actual interest is in Town. I'm sure it's not a tax benefit. he must be aware that fans have a low opinion of him. Maybe the prestige of owning a football club.
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