This Morning host Eamonn Holmes, 60, is taking HMRC to court to fight £250,000 tax bill 

This Morning host Eamonn Holmes, 60, is taking HMRC to court to fight £250,000 tax bill

  • Eamonn Holmes is set for a court showdown with HMRC over a £250,000 bill 
  • Was hit with £250k bill after losing a case against the taxman over how he is paid
  • The 60-year-old has now filed to take HM Revenue and Customs to court

Eamonn Holmes is set for a court showdown with HMRC over a £250,000 bill. 

The presenter was hit with the sum in February after losing a case against the taxman over how he is paid.

The host of ITV’s This Morning claimed he was a freelancer, and received payments via his company.

The 60-year-old has now filed to take HM Revenue and Customs to court over the sum. 

The presenter was hit with a £250,000 bill in February after losing a case against the taxman over how he is paid

HM Revenue and Customs has been cracking down on the practice, which can lead to lower taxes being paid. 

A spokesman for the star said he ‘has always considered himself a self-employed freelancer and has never knowingly avoided paying taxes’.

They said Mr Holmes was ‘seeking to comprehend what this means’ and wished for ‘clarity and consistency across the guidelines’ so others do not ‘suffer the same confusion’ over the rulings.

HMRC has been examining the way TV stars are paid as freelancers through personal service companies.

Speaking after its job was to make sure employees pay ’employment taxes’ even if they were working through their own company.

Holmes, who received an OBE in 2018, revealed that year that he was a ‘test case’ in HMRC’s campaign, claiming if they won against him they would ‘go after everyone else’.

Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes in their Surrey mansion

Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes in their Surrey mansion

He said: ‘I was in a court in central London for a week in June. I’ve been freelance for 28 years and that’s been okay.

‘Now they’ve said it’s not okay. They have reinvented the rules in the past couple of years. There is nobody more freelance than me, but they are trying to prove our jobs are regular and guaranteed. They could go at any moment.’

The HMRC has pursued other stars over the use of personal service companies and ex-regional TV presenter Christa Ackroyd was hit with a huge tax bill in 2018.

Last year Lorraine Kelly escaped a £1.2million tax bill for her ITV work after a judge said she had too much control over her shows to count as a ‘servant’ of the channel.