Three members of pop group Take That, plus their manager, have paid back over £20m owed to HMRC for their involvement in a tax avoidance scheme run by Icebreaker Management
Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and manager Jonathan Wild, are reported to decided not to appeal against a ruling made at a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) in 2014 against the scheme. Instead, they settled the tax due on their investment in the Larkdale partnership, plus interest, at the beginning of the year.
The FTT found that the 51 partnerships set up by Icebreaker which attracted around £336m in investment, purportedly to finance creative music projects, were set up solely to shelter around £130m in tax.
The Take That four were believed to have put more than £66m into Larkdale. The partnership then reported losses of £25m, which was offset against tax on £63m the band had earned from their 2005 reunion world tour and CD sales.
Robbie Williams and Jason Orange, the two other original members of the band, had not taken part in the scheme.
A spokesman for Take That said: ‘We have no comment beyond what we said a year ago.’ Icebreaker said it is awaiting the appeal judgment.’
