The taxman is set to try and recover hundreds of millions of pounds from celebrities as part of a clampdown on the offsetting of agents fees against tax bills.

HM Revenue & Customs' court battle with Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan concerns the issue, The Sunday Times reported this weekend.

The tax authorities believe the pair, as well as a host of other television presenters, authors and footballers, have wrongly set off the cost of employing agents against their tax bills.

The case, first revealed by Accountancy Age two weeks ago, has been heard before the Special Commissioners, and the result is due shortly.

The Sunday Times quotes a Revenue source, saying: 'The Revenue believes that the law only allows actors, musicians and dancers to claim that agents are a necessary business expense. Therefor, it is seeking to recover tax from other entertainers, sportsmen, authors and anyone else who has written off the expense of their agents.

'This encompasses a large number of high-profile people and if the special commissioners rule in favour of the Revenue in the Richard & Judy case, they will seek to recover tax going back six years on top of the current year.'

The story also says that official estimates of the tax gap, which are not yet finished, have put the amount of tax avoided and evaded at between £97bn and £150bn, or between 8% and 12% of GDP.