'Harry Potter' actor Rupert Grint hit with major tax bill after losing case

Rupert Grint will have to settle a sizable bill in the United Kingdom after losing a battle with tax authorities.

The "Harry Potter" star will be required to fork over just under $2.3 million to His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the U.K.'s tax agency, after the office accused him of wrongly classifying residuals from the blockbuster film franchise, the BBC and Associated Press report.

Those "residuals" refer to money made by the films after their major premieres including from streaming and DVD sales. In allegedly putting that money into a "capital assets" bucket rather than including it in his "income" bucket, Grint would have been able to pay a much lower tax rate on it.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Grint for comment.

The agency first brought the case against the 36-year-old actor in 2019, alleging the money, which Grint classified as capital assets, should actually be marked as income, which is taxed at a higher rate, the outlets report.

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During the 2011-2012 tax year, Grint took in about $5.7 million from a company managing his businesses. That money was classified as likely being from residuals, according to BBC, but was not added to his total "income" for the year. In excluding the money from his income and classifying it as an "asset" instead, Grint was able to pay capital gains tax on it at a rate of 10% rather than income and national insurance tax which can reach up to 52%, the outlet reports.

Lawyers for Grint appealed the 2019 ruling, but the bid was shot down by a judge this week, who ruled the funds "derived substantially the whole of its value from the activities of Mr. Grint" and "is taxable as income," AP reports.

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This is not Grint's first sign of tax trouble. The actor lost a separate court battle in 2019 over a $1.2 million tax return.

Most famous for portraying Ron Weasley throughout eight "Harry Potter" film adaptations, Grint was back on screens most recently for "Servant," a horror series from legendary director M. Night Shyamalan.

Grint is certainly not the only star to run into accounting trouble. Plenty of celebrities have been dinged for tax evasion or use of illegitimate tax shelters, including major names like Lil Wayne,Willie Nelson and Dionne Warwick.

In fact, the specifics of Grint's case aren't even singular − they follow in the steps of British pop royalty. In her decision against the actor, the judge cited the "Beatles clause," alleging that the loophole Grint was attempting to use was the same one the Beatles tried to employ in the '60s to pay capital gains rather than income tax, Entertainment Weekly reports.