Lineker ex’s £188k tax bill for ‘scam for scumbags’
WHEN sanctimonious BBC presenter Gary Lineker started to use the tax avoidance scheme run by accountancy firm Ingenious, his then wife, Michelle Cockayne, was also signed up as an investor.
Now, however, she has been saddled with a huge tax bill after the Government cracked down on such dubious organisations, which have been branded ‘scams for scumbags’.
Michelle, 50, who divorced the former England striker in 2006 after 20 years of marriage, has lost a £188,000 legal battle with the taxman. She will now have to repay the huge sum to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs.
Michelle shares a holiday home in Barbados with Lineker, 56, the father of her four sons.
She divorced him on the grounds of his ‘unreasonable behaviour’, with documents submitted to the court claiming that his actions in their marriage had caused her ‘stress and anxiety’.
In 2005, she joined the scheme marketed by Ingenious, which was set up to allow wealthy individuals to exploit tax breaks intended to encourage investment in UK films.
The scheme allowed investors to defer paying tax on their sheltered income for up to 15 years by agreeing to invest in films.
Court documents say Michelle was told that her share of losses from the scheme amounted to £470,442.
Because she chose to carry over the losses, she became entitled to a tax repayment, and was repaid £188,176.80.
Revenue and Customs investigated Ingenious’s scheme and issued Michelle with a notice to repay the money in 2014.
She declined to pay up at the time, arguing the tax notice was invalid and should be cancelled.
She appealed to the Administrative Court in London, seeking permission for a judicial review of the notice.
Revenue and Customs argued that her claim was brought too late and permission should be refused.
Mr Justice Dove agreed and threw out her claim, saying it was out of time, and that her claim was not arguable. Although his judgment was made in November, it has only just been published.
Lineker, by the way, was himself a member of five Ingenious schemes.
And although he never ceases from sharing his right-on thoughts on social media, he refused to comment yesterday.