Photo: WENN.com
Take That members Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen, could have to pay back millions of pounds in tax after their tax avoidance scheme was exposed.
The musicians, along with their manager Jonathan Wild, were just four of around 1,000 people who put money into schemes that were supposedly supporting the music industry. However tribunal Judge Colin Bishopp has ruled that these schemes were in fact created solely for tax avoidance purposes.
Barlow, Donald and Owen were 'directors' of Larkdale LLP, which was one of 50 companies set up in partnership with a business called Icebreaker.
Shortly after its inception though, the company reported massive losses of over £25 million, which could be offset against tax, reducing the singers' tax bills significantly.
Gary Barlow is finally going to find out that it doesn’t matter if he didn’t mean whatever he said or did, they still want it back.
— Boothby Graffoe (@boobygraffoe) May 11, 2014
In his ruling statement, Bishopp said: "The underlying, and fundamental, conclusion we have reached is that the Icebreaker scheme is, and was, known and understood by all concerned to be, a tax avoidance scheme."
He added: "We will not tolerate abuse of the system by people trying to dodge their tax obligations."
The members of the scheme have until 2 July to decide whether to appeal, and in the meantime, HMRC will be seeking payment of the tax.
