RICHARD EDEN: New trauma for Holly Willoughby as taxman seeks to close her company
She has had a torrid two years since it was first revealed that her co-host Phillip Schofield had had an affair with a much younger male colleague who was just 15 when Schofield first met him.
Things then got much grimmer for Holly Willoughby when she learned she was the subject of a kidnap and murder plot, prompting her to resign from ITV’s This Morning for her own safety.
And just when it looked like the presenter had put that awful time behind her – backed by reports that ITV are keen to offer her a new £1million deal – I can reveal she now faces a new trial.
Because Holly, 43, is in the crosshairs of the tax authorities.
This week HMRC opened fire by issuing a liquidation notice against Roxy Media, the company Holly and her husband, television producer Dan Baldwin, 49, founded in 2008.
It’s an intriguing development. Roxy Media owed £330,000 in corporation tax, as shown in its latest filed accounts.
However, one of Holly’s representatives tells me that no informed comment can be made at this stage.
HMRC has filed a liquidation petition against Roxy Media, the company Holly and her husband, television producer Dan Baldwin, 46, founded in 2008.
Phillip Schofield had had an affair with a much younger male colleague who was only 15 when Schofield first met him
Gavin Plumb was jailed over a plot to kidnap, rape and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby
A financial expert suspects the confrontation may stem from differing interpretations of Holly’s tax status.
“It is possible that her This Morning salary was paid to the company as freelance income,” she tells me, “while the tax authorities are considering that she was employed by ITV and the income should have been taxed on a PAYE basis ‘.
‘You would expect HMRC and Roxy Media to have been in dialogue,’ the expert added, ‘so it is possible that the tax authorities have issued the petition in an attempt to speed things up.’
At least Holly can console herself with the fact that she has a shelter where she can stand aside from the fighting while her accountants go to war on her behalf.
Last year she and Dan bought a six-bedroom house outside London, paying £8 million for it without a mortgage.