Gary Lineker has again lashed out at millionaires resisting paying more tax after joining the group Patriotic Millionaires UK.
The former footballer and Match Of The Day presenter, 65, joined more than 120 British millionaires in signing an open letter calling on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to introduce a 2% wealth tax on assets worth more than £10 million.
Appearing on Davina McCall’s Begin Again podcast Thursday, he addressed those opposing the increases — mostly billionaires — and asked, “How much do they actually need?” before you claim there is competition among the super-rich.
His impassioned calls to raise taxes come after he faced criticism over his colorful tax affairs, including a protracted battle with the taxman over a £4.9 million bill he refused to pay, revealed by Daily Mail+ earlier this year.
Court documents reveal how the father-of-four resisted tax authorities’ demands to pay £3.62 million in income tax and £1.31 million in national insurance for his television presenting work between 2013 and 2018.
When Davina called his campaign “great” and asked for more information, Gary said, “Oh, the millionaires pay taxes. Well, I think if you know that there comes a point in your life where you have wealth and I think maybe you can contribute to society…
Gary Lineker has discussed his call for more tax on millionaires after joining the group Patriotic Millionaires UK
‘Now I know that you can just do that if you want to, if you want to. I think there’s a way to just pay the taxes, and you know, we all do things with charities and things like that…
‘But I think it misses the point when they argue about the fact: do it anyway. But I think it would be useful if you could establish as a kind of law that the super-rich contribute more to society.’
Gary insisted a higher bill “wouldn’t actually make any difference” and said: “It’s like a ‘My d**k is bigger than your d**k'” and claimed those individuals are comparing their assets.
He continued, “Well, it is – and it wouldn’t really make any difference to them. How much do you actually need? I was just going to say, especially when you’re talking about obviously super-rich people, like the billionaires, and you think, well, and they say, well, they’ll just leave the country…
‘Will they really want more than 0.2% of their assets? I mean, would they? Why? And then you just think: would you want those kinds of people in the country? But I guess, as someone who’s quite wealthy, I’ve always paid taxes…
‘I have always paid top taxes, and have done so for a long time, and I enjoy doing so. And then you know, if they want us to get involved, I think most of us would want to help in some way. So we’ll see if the government does that…
Appearing on Davina McCall’s Begin Again podcast, he addressed those resisting the calls — mostly billionaires — and asked, “How much do they actually need?” before claiming that there is competition among the super-rich who avoid taxes
‘Of course there would be a lot of lobbying by the super-rich. Don’t know. It’s kind of a “my dick is bigger than your dick” game for a lot of them. And I have this and the other. I don’t quite understand it. So, but I think it’s helpful.”
After years of legal wrangling, a judge finally ruled in his favor in 2023, after a costly three-day tax tribunal in London.
It came about 20 years after Gary was one of a number of stars who pumped at least £100,000 each into programs run by the company Ingenious Media, which gave huge tax breaks to film investors.
In 2016, HMRC said the schemes amounted to ‘tax avoidance’ as they attempted to use ‘artificial losses’ to avoid millions of pounds in tax.
And in 2017, leaked documents suggested Gary avoided stamp duty when he sold a luxury home in Barbados because he bought it through an offshore company.
Andrew Griffith, the Tory shadow business secretary, slammed the star, saying: ‘If self-righteous preaching was an Olympic sport, millionaire sharp salesman Gary Lineker would win gold.
‘It’s unbelievable that he would spend his time on elaborate tax avoidance schemes while lecturing others on why they should pay more tax. As usual for celebrities who are out of touch, one rule applies to him and another to everyone else.”
Maxwell Marlow, director of the Adam Smith Institute, said: ‘Gary Lineker’s hypocritical call for wealth tax, when he previously battled HMRC to reduce his tax revenue, is nothing short of an absurd PR stunt.
‘If Gary and his friends at the dinner party want to pay more tax, they can do so by talking to HMRC – preferably from a courtroom.’
Reform Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick MP said: ‘Gary Lineker’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. If he wants to pay more taxes, he can sign a check to the Treasury tomorrow.
“But he won’t do that because he has spent years trying to pay as little tax as possible on his taxpayer-funded income.”
Documents show HMRC began pursuing Lineker in 2019 for unpaid taxes. He earned more than £1.7 million a year as the BBC’s highest-paid presenter.
The tax official said he should have been classified as an employee of the BBC and BT Sport, where he covered the UEFA Champions League.
Instead, he was paid as a contractor through Gary Lineker Media, a partnership he set up with his then-wife Danielle Bux in 2012, which allowed Lineker to be paid partly in dividends, at a lower corporate tax rate. He has said that all taxes on income were paid.
Davina praised Gary for the campaign
HMRC targeted him under IR35 legislation designed to tackle tax avoidance by so-called disguised employees.
But Lineker won his appeal in 2023, after the judge ruled 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 have come to expect from Gary Lineker.
‘If he is so desperate for everyone else to pay more, why has he spent five years fighting HMRC 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 companies (LLPs) set up by Ingenious Media between 2003 and 2007 as film financing schemes.
The plans helped produce films such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Life Of Pi and Avatar.
