Jacqueline Jossa shuts down company with eye-watering £51k tax bill after revealing she was forced to sell her house

FORMER EastEnders star Jacqueline Jossa has shut down her company after paying off £51k in debt. 

The star revealed earlier this year that she was so skint after leaving the soap she had to sell her house. 

Jacqueline then bounced back after winning I'm A Celebrity 2019 and made £1.3m in a year through her acting school and fashion range. 

But last year, the 29-year-old’s firm, Pooker Bash Ltd - set up to handle profits from her role as Lauren Branning on EastEnders - was being investigated by liquidators, as it owed £32k to HMRC and over £11k to other creditors.

The mum-of-two put the firm into voluntary liquidation in 2019 after leaving the soap in 2018. 

Now, the liquidating firm has completed its probe and closed Pooker Bash after receiving £51,523 from Jacqueline to pay off some of its debts. 

This helped to pay liquidator Henry Lan’s £26,846 fee at £256-an-hour, who struck a deal with her two unsecured creditors.  

Henry Lan stated in the final report that he had “agreed claims totally £45,317 from two creditors.

"Unsecured creditors were paid a dividend of 55 pence in the £1, totally £24,923 on 12 April 2022."

This means the taxman was likely to recover £17,600 of the £32k that was owed.

Jacqueline has stayed true to her word after the financial inquiry was launched last year, and her spokesman said: "Conversations are ongoing between Jacqueline's accountant and the liquidator over the true figure she owes.

"Once they come to a decision on the fee which is owed, Jacqueline will of course be paying it straight away.”

Jacqueline now lives in a six-bed £1 million mansion in Essex, featuring a cinema room and bar, with her husband Dan Osborne, 31, and their daughters Ella, seven, and Mia, four.

Jacqueline previously revealed on Sam and Billie Faiers’ podcast, , that she was forced to flog her then house after quitting the soap to help pay the bills.

She said: "I was on EastEnders for eight years where you got a set pay cheque every week. It was a set pay cheque and I didn’t have to do anything else. It was my comfort blanket, it was what I knew. Then it just wasn’t.

"There’s no such thing for me as maternity pay, so when I had kids I had to leave and I had to do magazine covers to make money to feed my kids.

"There’s been times where I haven’t had money. Before I went in the jungle I was struggling with money. I had to sell my house."

Jacqueline won I'm A Celebrity in 2019 and since then has struck money-making deals with In The Style and Hot Diamonds amongst other brands.