Dodging tax

Billy Connolly tells Campbell Robertson that his move to Malta was part of a tax dodge:

Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian, began his act the other night by talking about his recently acquired eyeglasses, moved on to his prostate exam and gave a thorough account of his adventure with laxatives by way of a discussion of colonoscopies. So it would seem that the title of his show, the "Too Old to Die Young" tour, was a statement by Mr. Connolly, 63, a reformed alcoholic and fixture of the cocaine-fueled 1970's British rock scene, on the difficulties of aging..

Last year Ms. Stephenson decided that she wanted to sail around the world in a 120-foot yacht (they are, Mr. Connolly admits onstage, fairly wealthy), so to buy the yacht they sold the house in California (because they're not that wealthy). While Ms. Stephenson tours Galápagos and Bali, Mr. Connolly divides the time he is not on tour between their estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; the house in Malta; and the yacht, wherever it happens to be. Other comedians might conceal this kind of financial success with banter about trips to the supermarket, but in his act Mr. Connolly, a former welder who was reared mainly by his aunts in a Glasgow tenement, talks about the perks of wealth with the relish of the formerly poor. He offhandedly mentions trips to Tahiti and his chauffeured limousine; he even slyly mentions that his move to Malta was part of a tax dodge. "You can't talk about being broke when they know you're not," he said. "If you've got a big house, talk about a big house."...