LINEKER DEFENDS STASH OF THE DAY
Telly host in row over hol mansion tax
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GARY Lineker was branded a “complete hypocrite” yesterday after being dragged into a tax row.
The Match Of The Day host allegedly used an offshore company to buy a £2.2million Barbados home to avoid tax when it was sold. But the former England star brushed off questions on Twitter by saying: “I’ll sleep very soundly ... I happily pay my taxes.’’ Lineker’s response sparked outrage from online critics who immediately branded him a “typical smug champagne socialist”. Kev McGuinness said: “Man of the people Gary Lineker defending the tax arrangements on the sale of a luxury Barbados home. He’s clearly one of us #champagnesocialist.’’ Lee Cowap wrote: “Please help my uncle, lives in Barbados. Has Parkinson’s. No money in the economy there due to offshore companies.’’ The leaked Paradise Papers claimed Lineker, 56, used a British Virgin Islands firm to buy his five-bed mansion with a 50ft heated pool, allowing him to avoid local taxes when it was sold. Stamp duty is only payable in Barbados when properties are sold. But if they are bought via offshore firms, like Lineker’s, then it is possible to avoid the levy altogether. The method is legal but a political party has now been set up on the Caribbean island intent on stamping it out to prevent the exploitation of locals. Lineker defended himself in a series of tweets, saying: “I do pay my taxes properly.”
And his representatives insisted there had been “no tax irregularity”.
But critics were unimpressed. James Dawson said: “The issue is about him being a complete hypocrite – hard to be left wing and then use tax loopholes that normal people would struggle to use.’’
Lineker has previously called US President Donald Trump “a joke” and ridiculed former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.