TV’s Eamonn: I’m best there is
EAMONN Holmes believes he’s the ‘best live television presenter’ in the UK, legal documents related to his tax case reveal.
The host claimed ITV hired him for This Morning because he ‘could do the job better than anyone else’, and described himself as ‘the market leader’.
The Belfast native also boasted he was someone who could boost ratings. He said he was in ‘total control’ over what happened on the show, and that he was ‘not there to follow other people’s rules’,
The comments are included in papers he submitted after the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs challenged the way he was paid. Holmes, 60, faces a tax bill of up to £250,000 (€300,000) after losing a tribunal.
The presenter claimed he was a self-employed freelancer and was paid through his own limited company rather than directly as an employee of ITV. The UK taxman has been cracking down on the practice, under which stars can pay tax at a lower rate, and two years ago former regional TV host Christa Ackroyd was hit with a £420,000 (€500,000) tax bill. In his evidence, Holmes said that in his opinion ITV wanted him as an ‘entertainer who brings a maverick element to the show’.
He added that he was his ‘own creation’ and was ‘not anybody’s slave’ on This Morning, which he co-presents with his wife Ruth Langsford.
But further evidence from ITV, recorded in ‘meeting notes’, revealed Holmes was ‘creative’ with the autocue which could ‘play havoc’ on the programme. He would also arrive at the studio shortly before the show started and ‘rarely follows a brief’.
But ITV was also recorded as saying that Holmes was popular with viewers. ‘His personality drives the show,’ it added. The tax case relates to payments he received for his work on This Morning –which also airs on UTV – from 2011 to 2015.
During this period, his company Red, White and Green entered into four contracts with ITV, and turnover ranged from £251,319 to £464,483.
‘Brings maverick element’
Holmes argued ‘there is nobody more freelance than me’ and that his jobs ‘could go at any moment’. A spokesman said he ‘has never knowingly avoided paying taxes’.
But in the ruling, tribunal judge Harriet Morgan concluded that through the period in question, there was ‘sufficient mutuality’ to suggest the ‘assumed relationship’ between Holmes and ITV was one of ‘employment’.