Gary Lineker Is Facing His Biggest Backlash Yet After A £4.9 Million Tax Row Collided With His Calls For The Rich To Pay More. The Former England Captain Has Been Branded “Grossly Hypocritical” By Critics After His Reported Five-year Fight Over A Multimillion-pound Tax Bill Resurfaced, Just As His Comments Urging Higher Taxes On The Wealthy Came Back Into The Spotlight. The Renewed Controversy Has Ignited A Fierce Political And Public Debate, With Opponents Questioning Whether One Of Britain’s Highest-profile Broadcasters Is Practising What He Preaches. Attention Has Now Turned To One Awkward Detail From The Long-running Dispute That Critics Say Completely Changes The Conversation—and Supporters Are Rushing To Defend Him.

Gary Lineker has been accused of ‘gross hypocrisy’ after calling for tax hikes despite fighting a five-year legal battle with HMRC and his involvement in a controversial tax avoidance scheme.

The former England footballer last week signed an open letter with more than 100 other millionaires urging Andy Burnham to increase taxes for the wealthiest.

The self-styled ‘patriotic millionaires’ declared: ‘We want you to tax us. We can afford it.’

But the ex-BBC presenter faced criticism over his colourful tax affairs, including a protracted fight against the taxman over a £4.9million bill he didn’t want to pay.

Court documents reveal how the father-of-four resisted demands from the taxman to pay £3.62million in income tax and £1.31million in National Insurance over his television presenting work between 2013 and 2018.

After years of legal wrangling a judge finally ruled in his favour in 2023 following a costly three-day tax tribunal in London.

It came around 20 years after Lineker was among a number of stars who pumped at least £100,000 each into schemes run by a firm called Ingenious Media, which gave huge tax breaks to film investors.

In 2016 HMRC said the schemes amounted to ‘tax avoidance’ as they tried to use ‘artificial losses’ to avoid millions of pounds in tax.

And in 2017 leaked documents suggested that Lineker, 65, avoided stamp duty when selling a luxury home in Barbados because he bought it through an offshore firm.

Andrew Griffith, Tory shadow business secretary, lambasted the star, saying: ‘If self-righteous preaching was an Olympic sport, millionaire crisp salesman Gary Lineker would win gold.

‘It beggars belief that he would spend his time on elaborate tax avoidance schemes whilst lecturing others on why they should pay more tax.

‘As per usual for out of touch celebrities – it’s one rule for him and another for everyone else.’

Maxwell Marlow, director at the Adam Smith Institute, said: ‘Gary Lineker’s hypocritical call for wealth taxes, as he previously battled with HMRC to reduce his tax take, is nothing but an absurd PR stunt.

‘If Gary and his dinner party chums want to pay more tax, they are welcome to do so by speaking to HMRC – preferably out of a courtroom.’

Reform Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick MP, said: ‘Gary Lineker’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. If he wants to pay more tax he could sign a cheque to the Treasury tomorrow.

‘But he won’t because he’s spent years trying to pay as little tax as possible on his taxpayer-funded income.’

Documents show that HMRC began pursuing Lineker for outstanding tax in 2019. He was earning more than £1.7million a year as the BBC’s highest-paid presenter.

The taxman said he should have been classed as an employee of the BBC and BT Sport, where he presented coverage of the Uefa Champions League.

Instead, he was paid as a contractor through Gary Lineker Media, a partnership he set up in 2012 with his then-wife Danielle Bux, allowing Lineker to be paid partly in dividends, at a lower corporation tax rate. He has said that all taxes were paid on the income.

HMRC targeted him under IR35 legislation designed to crack down on tax avoidance by so-called disguised employees.

But Lineker won his appeal in 2023, with a judge ruling he was a freelancer and had contracts with both broadcasters. HMRC appealed but settled the case in 2024.

Charlie Dewhirst, Tory MP, said: ‘This is the kind of gross hypocrisy we’ve come to expect from Gary Lineker.

‘If he is so desperate for everyone else to pay more, why did he bother battling HMRC for five years to save himself millions of pounds in extra tax?’

Publicly available records also show that Lineker was a member of a series of limited liability partnerships (LLPs) set up between 2003 and 2007 as movie financing schemes by Ingenious Media.

The schemes helped produce films such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Life Of Pi and Avatar.