Pavarotti feels the big squeeze
The probe into the tax affairs of Luciano Pavarotti – currently being investigated by Italian authorities – has been extended to the operatic tenor’s UK investments and earnings, according to reports this week.
Italian tax commissioners won a claim for £3.5m in back tax from the singer in February, on the basis that his legal and fiscal home was in Modena, northern Italy – where he recently shared the stage with pop diva Mariah Carey – and not Monte Carlo, where Pavarotti owns a small flat.
A further investigation into back taxes due in Germany is under way, which led to the singer cancelling a New Year concert in the country.
The Metropolitan Police fraud squad was reported to have compiled a dossier on Pavarotti’s UK affairs, according to press reports, but Scotland Yard and Inland Revenue officials denied any knowledge of such an investigation.