Right of Reply; Mick Jagger

The decision to cancel concerts was forced on us, says the lead singer of the Rolling Stones

WE ARE very disappointed to have to postpone our British concerts. But following the decision to change the tax laws retrospectively and tax Britons who spend most of the year out of the country, we would have run our entire European tour at a considerable loss. I should stress that we were not using a tax loophole. The scheme was set up by Denis Healey, a Labour chancellor, and has been in use for two decades. There was nothing clandestine about it and it is used by a wide variety of people working overseas.

Whatever the Treasury says, these changes are being introduced retrospectively. This is highly unusual. The government has every right to change the tax laws but we would have expected the new regulations to come into effect at the end of the tax year, not in the middle.

Our tax adviser said the band and 40 members of the road crew would face a huge tax bill. We offered to play the UK shows for charity but the Revenue rejected the suggestion. So we were forced to make a decision: either Charlie, Ronnie and myself were to swallow an unexpected pounds 12m tax bill, putting the tour into the red, or postpone the dates.

It is not just the band who are affected. Our crew signed up on the basis that their earnings would be free of tax in Britain because they were hardly in the country. Already the manager of an American act has told us they may not hire British technicians because they won't want to work in the UK, which is a vital part of any European tour. This was a very difficult decision for us, and it is not a tax protest.