Taking Stock: I want your tax; I want your tax for good, sings HMRC
Take That have been singing to HMRC's tune in recent months
RELIGHT my Fire, Could it be Magic and Pray are just a few of Take That’s most loveable hits, but the biggest hit the boy band has taken in recent years is a £20m payment to the taxman.
Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and the boy band’s manager Jonathan Wild were hit with some bad news in 2014, as a tribunal ruled that that a controversial film investment scheme that they were all involved in was “known and understood by all concerned to be a tax avoidance scheme”.
According to the Sunday Times, the trio and their manager have been repaying the money back to HMRC since the beginning of this year, with an estimated £20m having already been paid back.
The controversy led to calls for Barlow’s OBE to be stripped from him, but in 2014 he said: “I want to apologise to anyone who was offended by the tax stories earlier this year.
“With a new team of accountants, we are working to settle things with all parties involved ASAP.”
TS hopes that all his fans, his accountants and HMRC have a little patience…