Loose Women star Kaye Adams WINS her 10-year battle towards the taxman

Loose Women‘s Kaye Adams has received a 10-year battle to keep away from paying £124,000 in tax, the newest in a string of rows involving excessive profile TV stars and HMRC.

The presenter, 61, had been arguing she is self-employed for her work carried out between 2013 and 2017 – when internet hosting ‘The Kaye Adams Programme’ on BBC Radio Scotland.

HMRC had claimed that she was an worker and owed hundreds in unpaid taxes however has now lastly conceded she was a freelancer.

It follows a number of different high-profile disputes, together with when Lorraine Kelly escaped a £1.2 million tax invoice after a decide described her as an ‘entertaining girl’ who’s her personal boss in 2019.

Gary Lineker was additionally accused of owing almost £5million in unpaid tax over his Match of the Day and BT Sport presenting gigs however received his case towards HMRC in March. 

However Eamonn Holmes revealed final week he needed to promote his beloved home in east Belfast to repay an enormous invoice after a £250,000 tax battle with HMRC.

The disputes got here from laws often called IR35, designed to clampdown on tax avoidance by so-called ‘disguised workers’, who cost for his or her providers by way of restricted firms.

IR35 is the technical identify for laws launched in 2000 that’s meant to make it more durable for contractors working virtually as workers to pay much less tax.

The guidelines see all contractors that don’t meet HMRC’s definition of self-employment taxed at an identical charge to regular workers.

Media stars are amongst these which were caught within the authorities’s crackdown as ministers have tightened guidelines prior to now decade. 

In the case of Adams, HMRC officers had claimed that she was an worker and owed hundreds in unpaid taxes.

She was paid £155,000 per 12 months to current a minimal of 160 programmes for the BBC. 

HMRC argued the presenter, who was employed as a freelancer throughout her time at BBC Scotland by way of her firm Atholl House Productions Ltd, owed £81,150.60 in revenue tax and £43,290.98 in nationwide insurance coverage contributions. 

Adams appealed to the First Tier Tax Tribunal and first received her case in April 2019. However, HMRC repeatedly refused to just accept the choice, main to a few extra hearings.

But the TV star, initially from Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, received a 3rd courtroom battle in November when a courtroom dominated she was a contract employee.

The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant then pleaded with the tax authority to not attraction and stated the last decade of monetary limbo had been ‘virtually insufferable’.

After reviewing the choice, HMRC have now stated they won’t attraction the judgement – bringing the matter to an in depth.  

An HMRC spokesperson advised MailOnline: ‘Given this litigation has been ongoing for plenty of years and the First Tier Tribunal doesn’t set binding authorized precedents, we do not suppose it might be proportionate to attraction on this case.

‘We at all times search to resolve disputes out of courtroom first and solely take motion to litigate the place this is not doable.’

During the proceedings vital weight was positioned on the very fact Adams had been a contract journalist for 20 years, was not financially dependent completely on the BBC, and was merely carrying on her occupation as an impartial supplier of providers. 

Adams now lives in Glasgow along with her associate, tennis coach Ian Campbell, and their daughters Charley, 21, and Bonnie, 16.

In a press release to freelancers’ web site Contract Calculator, Adams stated the case had value her almost £300,000 in authorized charges and condemned HMRC’s therapy of her.

She stated: ‘Whilst I’m extraordinarily happy that HMRC has determined to not roll the cube on a fifth time fortunate shot on my case, I stay completely horrified on the behaviour of this division.

‘The assertion they launched to the press, with out my information, twenty minutes after informing me of their choice, says they do not suppose it might be ‘proportionate’ to attraction on this case.

‘It was by no means proportionate.

‘By the top of my first listening to 5 years in the past, I had burned by extra money in authorized charges than the tax in dispute.

‘Where was HMRC’s concern over proportionality once they appealed to Upper Tribunal after which appealed once more to the Court of Appeal after which once more hauled me over the coals within the First Tier Tribunal for a second time?

‘Not as soon as did they rating a victory over me, but they saved going. And now they’ve the audacity to recommend, my case doesn’t set authorized binding precedent. It is outrageous.

‘HMRC is aware of IR35 is a multitude. It is aware of it has been enjoying quick and unfastened with taxpayers’ cash to push by an interpretation of the regulation that it has frankly invented and it appears these faceless bureaucrats are accountable to nobody.

‘They have the ability to break good, sincere hard-working folks’s lives with no penalties.

‘It isn’t just lives they’re trashing, HMRC is making a mockery of the laws. Self-employed standing is now decided in response to the strain utilized by HMRC and danger administration on the a part of media firms, not in response to the regulation.

‘This is a pyrrhic victory for me. I’ve received my case towards HMRC and I’ve spent on authorized charges almost £300,000, which ought to have been in my pension. Justice eh!’

The case comes as HMRC’s boss got here beneath hearth from some MPs in December after they accused the tax authority of heavy-handed therapy of employees who tried to problem it over self-employment guidelines.

Off-payroll working guidelines – or IR35 – dictate how employees who present their providers by an middleman like a restricted firm are assessed for tax functions.

If they’re deemed ‘outdoors IR35’, they are going to be taxed as a self-employed employee. If they’re ‘inside IR35’, they are going to be taxed as an worker.

Adams’ current tax victory comes after she revealed she was rushed to hospital final week after being satisfied she had a tumour. 

She posted a video explaining that she was left ‘completely terrified’ after placing in her earpiece for Friday’s Loose Women present and never with the ability to hear something, recalling: ‘I believed, “Oh my god, what has gone wrong?”.’ 

While she managed to get by the present, she was ‘panicking’ all through and after wanting up her techniques on-line she headed to her native A&E.

She praised the nurses at hospital for serving to to calm her down and who despatched her for an audiogram at a close-by Boots listening to centre, the place the reason for her listening to loss proved to be extremely easy – earwax. 

Adams’ lengthy tax battle comes after a sequence of comparable circumstances involving different media stars.

Lorraine Kelly escaped a £1.2 million tax invoice after a decide described her as an ‘entertaining girl’ who’s her personal boss.

She locked horns with the tax authorities over claims that the corporate by which she gives her providers to broadcasters is only a entrance.

The dispute hinged on a contract the Scottish star signed with ITV Breakfast in 2012 to current the ‘Daybreak’ and ‘Lorraine’ exhibits. 

In 2016 HM Revenue and Customs introduced her with an revenue tax invoice for nearly £900,000, plus nationwide insurance coverage contributions of over £300,000.

But in 2019 she scored a victory after a tax decide described her as an ‘sincere, clever’ girl who’s a super-talented freelancer.

A courtroom heard how she labored for quite a few broadcasters, picked her personal work – as soon as even turning down Elton John for an early-hours interview that did not meet her schedule.

Judge Jennifer Dean stated she had created her personal ‘persona’ and ‘model’ and that’s what broadcasters needed once they took her on.

In an identical case, Gary Lineker was accused of owing almost £5million in unpaid tax beneath IR35 legal guidelines.

The Match Of The Day host received his battle towards HMRC final 12 months after he was advised by the taxman he ought to have been classed as an worker of the BBC and BT Sport for his presenting duties, slightly than as a freelancer.

The tax authorities pursued him for £4.9million, claiming ought to have been paid on revenue obtained between 2013 and 2018.

Throughout proceedings the presenter, 63, insisted all taxes had been paid on the revenue by way of a partnership arrange in 2012 together with his ex-wife Danielle Bux. 

HMRC advised MailOnline in March it was ‘contemplating’ an attraction.

The tribunal discovered that whereas Gary Lineker Media (GLM), which he arrange together with his then spouse in 2012, was a partnership to which IR35 laws applies, the attraction was nonetheless dismissed in full as a result of contracts existed.

However Eamonn Holmes revealed final week he needed to promote his beloved home in east Belfast to repay an enormous invoice after he misplaced his £250,000 tax battle with HMRC.

Speaking in an interview together with his former UTV colleague Gerry Kelly, on account of be screened subsequent month, Eamonn claimed tax officers dominated he was a employees member with broadcasters slightly than freelance.

They allegedly requested for 10 years of retrospective tax and nationwide insurance coverage funds from him.

He claims he by no means obtained vacation or sick pay, although he stated he wasn’t searching for sympathy. ‘It’s like they’ve taken away all the things I ever labored for,’ he tells the present on NVTV.

The Financial Times experiences some tax consultants view the result of Holmes’ case as unfair as a result of it stands in distinction to different presenters who’ve fought related circumstances.

Chief govt of tax compliance firm IR35 Shield Dave Chaplin advised the paper: ‘I really suppose the general end result for Holmes is flawed.’ 

He added that his case was made harder after the upper-tier tribunal’s guidelines didn’t permit new proof to be launched — solely appeals on factors of regulation may very well be heard.