Tycoon wins £84m tax row

MATALAN founder John Hargreaves will not pay an £84m tax bill after winning a legal battle.

The 75-year- old billionaire, who launched the retail chain in 1985, won the appeal following a five-year dispute with the authorities.

Hargreaves sold £230m of Matalan shares in 2000, telling HMRC he had moved to Monaco and was no longer a UK tax resident.

HMRC probed his affairs in 2004 after discovering he was working in the UK for three days a week.

The taxman issued an £84m bill for unpaid capital gains tax in 2007 but a judge has now ruled in favour of Hargreaves. Judge John Brooks said: ‘There was, at the very least, more than three years between the discovery and the assessment. Given this delay, the discovery had lost its quality of newness and become stale by the time the assessment was made.’

HMRC is considering an appeal.