Holly Willoughby and husband owe £300,000 in unpaid tax as business risks closure
The couple started Roxy Media together in 2020.
Holly Willoughby is facing a court battle over an outstanding tax bill of over £300,000.
The Dancing On Ice presenter and her husband Dan Baldwin set up Roxy Media, a media production and management firm, in 2020 and now a hearing related to the company is scheduled to take place on April 16.
According to a filing earlier this month, HMRC has hit Roxy Media with a wind-up order which could seek to shut the business down over the tax issue.
The company’s most recent accounts show it owned £329,715 in corporation tax for the year up to August 2023.
The extent of Roxy Media’s tax issue is not clear.
A hearing was initially set for Wednesday this week, but it was adjourned with the new hearing set for April.
Holly set up the company with her husband Dan Baldwin (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)An HMRC spokeswoman said: ‘We take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who have tax debts and only file winding-up petitions once we’ve exhausted all other options, in order to protect taxpayers’ money.’
The former This Morning presenter, 44, stepped down from the ITV show in 2023 after 14 years on the iconic sofa, having spent the last two decades building her reputation as one of the UK’s biggest telly stars.
As well as fronting Dancing On Ice, she recently appeared on Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt with adventurer Bear Grylls.
Although the celebrities truly put themselves to the test, it’s been claimed Holly appeared for only 24 minutes across more than seven hours of the programme.
Holly is one of the biggest UK stars on television (Picture: Kieron McCarron/ITV/Shutterstock) She hosted Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt (Picture: Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterst)To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
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Previous Page Next PageBut for that time, she’s earned the equivalent of £40,000 for every minute, according to The Sun, with claims she was paid almost £1,000,000 to present the programme, despite being on screen for an average of three minutes per episode.
As a national treasure and TV veteran, Holly is able to command huge fees, while Bear admitted she brought a lot to the show when the celebrities were struggling.
‘Holly goes into mum mode which is very helpful in those situations,’ he told Metro.
She has been praised for her role on the show (Picture: Tom Dymond/Netflix)‘But I do say from the start, “this is a dynamic, difficult environment and stuff is going to happen. You will be alive, but I can’t guarantee you’re not going to have a few scrapes and bumps along the way.” ‘
At one point, Steph McGovern was feeling ‘a bit woozy’ and thought she might be sick, and it was Holly – as well as the medical team – who helped her in the moment.
She recalled: ‘Holly did this really lovely thing where she was kind of out of shot, but she just went to me, “It’s alright if you want to cry.” So then I just went, “Thank you!” and started crying.’
Metro has contacted representatives for Holly Willoughby for comment.
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